Chin, Jason - Redwoods
Duval, John: The Great Spruce
Fan Brothers: The Night Gardener
Filippucci, Laura: The Universe is a Tree
Formento, Alison - The Tree Counts
Gerber,Carole - Winter Trees
Gourley, Robbin - Bring Me Some Apples and I'll Bake You a Pie
Jackson, Alison - Thea's Tree
Karas, G. Brian: As an Oak Tree Grows
Mora, Pat - Pablo's Tree
Muldrow, Diane - We Planted a Tree
Nichols, Lauri - Maple
Nivola, Claire A.: Planting the Trees of Kenya
Pallotta, Jerry - Who Will Plant a Tree?
Prevot, Franck: Wangari Maathai: The Woman Who Planted Millions of Trees
Rex, Adam - Tree Ring Circus
Roth, Susan L. & Trumbore, Cindy - The Mangrove Tree
Strand, Kieth: Grandfather's Christmas Tree
Thong, Roseanne - The Wishing Tree
Winter, Jeanette - Wangari's Tree of Peace
Worth, Bonnie - I Can Name 50 Trees Today
Tu b'Shvat is one of the "new year" celebrations in the Jewish culture. In short, it's a celebration of trees. As a non-Jew, this is one of my favorite Jewish celebrations (since I work in a Jewish day school, I do get to "celebrate" most Jewish holidays and holy days). This year, Tu b'Shvat falls on January 26th. Here are some of my favorite poems that have to do with trees...old poems and newish poems.
Trees
The Oak is called the king of trees,
The Aspen quivers in the breeze,
The Poplar grows up straight and tall,
The Peach tree spreads along the wall,
The Sycamore gives pleasant shade,
The Willow droops in watery glade,
The Fir tree useful in timber gives,
The Beech amid the forest lives.
Sarah Coleridge
Evergreen
Hemlock and pine
stand in July
grassy
steeples
against the
sky.
Sequoia and
yew
October days
short
green shadows
lengthen
over the
court.
Spruce and
cypress
December winds
blow
emerald
palaces
shining in
snow.
Cedar and fir
March freshets
and rains
whatever the
season
green remains
Juniper
conifer constancy
evergreen
evergreen evergreen grow
evergreen
evergreen ever green grow.
Eve Merriam
The Tree on the Corner
I’ve seen
the tree on
the corner
in spring bud
and summer
green.
Yesterday
it was yellow
gold.
Then a cold
wind began to
blow.
Now I know
---
you really do
not see
a tree
until you see
its bones.
Lilian Moore
In
Hardwood Groves
The
same leaves over and over again!
They
fall from giving shade above.
To
make one texture of faded brown.
And
fit the earth like a leather glove.
Before
the leaves can mount again
To
fill the trees with another shade,
They
must go down past things coming up.
They
must go down into the dark decayed.
They
must be pierced by flowers and put
Beneath
the feet of dancing flowers.
However
it is in some other world
I
know that this is the way in ours.
Robert Frost
TREES
A poem lovely as
a tree.
A tree whose
hungry mouth is prest
Against the
earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks
at God all day,
And lifts her
leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may
in Summer wear
A nest of robins
in her hair;
Upon whose bosom
snow has lain;
Who intimately
lives with rain.
Poems are made by
fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
One by one the leaves fall down
From the sky come falling one by one
And leaf by leaf the summer is done
One by one by one by one.
Margaret Wise Brown
Leaves
In spring,
yellow-green and tiny,
you pop out and dress big trees
in baby clothes.
You grow bigger and greener
in different shapes and styles
for different kinds of trees.
You flutter in the breeze like flats
and whisper, "Shhhhhhh.
Listen to the world."
You turn your backs to storms,
flash and sparkle in the sun,
and for Halloween
you wear costumes!
Some dress as flames or grapes,
some as orranges or gold coins.
And when the wind ocmes for you,
you let go of the branches
and fly, whirling in flocks
with the sparrows
till you drift
exhausted
to the ground
like a blanket of colorful,
crispy cornflakes,
and we rake you up,
and leap into you ---
you're all we have left of summer.
But don't forget!
Come back
next spring.
~Mordicai Gerstein
from Dear Hot Dog
Tree Song
Roots,
trunk,
branches,
leaves.
As a tree
gives
so it
receives:
food
from
the earth,
rain
and sun
from
the sky.
Its roots
reach
deep
and its crown
rises
high.
Blossoms
in spring,
fruit
in the summer
and fall:
home
for many,
shelter
for all.
-George Ella Lyon
from Falling Down the Page:
a book of List Poems
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