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A WALK AMONG THE GIANTS
Joyce Kilmer began his now famous poem:
I think that I shall never see…a poem as lovely as a tree
and the older I grow…the more I walk among them…
the more with Mr. Kilmer I agree
His beautifully simple poem…written in 1913…as a tribute to the tree…is what brought us to the Joyce Kilmer forest…in Robbinsville…NC.
After a beautiful drive in the country…at the entrance we arrived
and we realized we were here 30 years ago..with our children and Deborahs’s dad while he was still alive.
As the memories washed over us…memories with one another we exchanged…we thought how our life is so different 30 years later…but this forest hasn’t changed.
In truth…the trees have grown a little older…some have fallen…and their wrinkles aren’t as small…but when we stopped to think about it…that has happened to us all.
It’s a virgin forest (meaning it’s never been logged)…and is truly a sight to behold…There are 100 species of trees…some standing 100 feet tall…many over 400 years old.
As we began to walk among these giants…we didn’t travel very far…before once again realizing how huge are the trees that surround us…and how minuscule we are.
We’d find one of these behemoths…then at it’s base the two of us would stop…We’d turn our eyes to the heavens…but we could not see the top.
We noticed each tree is like a high rise apartment…some standing alone…others interweaved…with a host of animals, insects and plants living among their bark, their branches…their leaves.
Walking in the midst of these ancient giants…we felt blessed…we felt a joy within us release…..our hearts seemed to beat a little slower and our inner souls found peace.
His poem is not a very long poem…it ends as it began…quite lyrically…stating: poems are made by fools like me…but only God can make a tree
We added new memories to our old ones…
in a virgin forest we once visited 30 years before……
and as I try to put our feelings into a poem…
Mr. Kilmer I couldn’t agree with you more.
