![\"\"](\"https:\/\/kathyschiffer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/pocosin-pine.jpg\")
Today, December 6, is the birthday of Joyce Kilmer.<\/p>\nToday, December 6, is the birthday of Joyce Kilmer.<\/p>\n
Alfred Joyce Kilmer<\/strong>\u00a0(December 6, 1886 \u2013\u00a0July 30, 1918) was an American journalist, poet, literary critic, and editor. \u00a0He was considered the leading Catholic poet and lecturer of his generation, and was compared to G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc. \u00a0He died too young, at age 31, leaving his fans to wonder what else he might have accomplished had he lived. \u00a0A sergeant in the 165th U.S. Infantry Regiment during World War I, Kilmer was killed at the\u00a0Second Battle of the Marne\u00a0in 1918.<\/p>\n In Kilmer\u2019s honor, I repost a favorite article about trees!<\/p>\n * \u00a0 \u00a0 * \u00a0 \u00a0 * \u00a0 \u00a0 * \u00a0 \u00a0 *<\/p>\n SO AWAY WE DROVE, armored with a GPS and comfy shoes, on the Great American Road Trip.<\/strong>\u00a0 We set off, sans itinerary, to visit relatives in Ohio, our son in South Carolina, and then\u2026.???<\/p>\n These past ten years, I have been a frequent flyer\u2014jetting here and there, facing jet lag but not road fatigue, frequenting airport terminals instead of gas stations. This time, though, we would be roaming along the highway, getting up close and personal with forests and fields, traffic circles and freeway overpasses.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, good!\u201d<\/em> I thought.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll have plenty of time for blogging, and for completing a few editing projects for the office.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n But that was before I fell in love once again with the land<\/strong>\u2014with meandering streams and farmers\u2019 fields gone fallow, with mountain vistas and fog-shrouded meadows.\u00a0 As one mile stretched into another, I gazed at the reflection of God in the verdant forests of pocosins and loblolly pines. \u00a0I imagined His handprint in the brick-red South Carolina mud, and in the sprawling wisteria, fragrant blooms drooping from boughs of sweetbay and willow oak.\u00a0 The beauty, the\u00a0mind-numbing variety, the creativity\u2026.\u00a0 well, I couldn\u2019t stop looking.<\/p>\n \u201cBillions and billions of stars!\u201d<\/strong><\/em> exclaimed astrophysicist and cosmologist Carl Sagan on black-and-white TV in the 1960s.\u00a0 An avowed atheist, Sagan\u2014if I may mix metaphors here\u2014couldn\u2019t see the forest for the trees.\u00a0 He saw the beauty and the enormity of the universe, yet he never looked for the One who brought the cosmos into being.<\/p>\n Carl Sagan looked at the cosmos and saw a frontier awaiting exploration\u2014but that\u2019s all.\u00a0 The poet Joyce Kilmer looked at a single tree with wonder, and extolled the praises of a great and mighty God.\u00a0 You may remember his poem from back in high school; but here it is in its entirety.<\/p>\n TREES I think that I shall never see Today, December 6, is the birthday of Joyce Kilmer. Alfred Joyce Kilmer\u00a0(December 6, 1886 \u2013\u00a0July 30, 1918) was an American journalist, poet, literary critic, and editor. \u00a0He was considered the leading Catholic poet and lecturer of his generation, and was compared to G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc. \u00a0He died too young, at age 31, leaving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":556,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,95,171,190],"tags":[2733,362,2779,518,2847,2863],"class_list":["post-1744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","category-faith","category-nature","category-poetry","tag-atheism","tag-carl-sagan","tag-faith","tag-joyce-kilmer","tag-nature","tag-poetry"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/kathyschiffer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Magnolia_Tree-300x225.jpg\")
Here on terra firma, I see the trees\u2014billions and billions of trees\u2014and I find irrefutable evidence for a benevolent Designer.<\/strong>\u00a0 The showy crapemyrtle, the leathery leaves of the magnolia\u2014well, I see those graceful things, and I just KNOW.<\/p>\n
\nby: Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nA poem lovely as a tree.
\nA tree whose hungry mouth is prest
\nAgainst the earth\u2019s sweet flowing breast;
\nA tree that looks at God all day,
\nAnd lifts her leafy arms to pray;
\nA tree that may in Summer wear
\nA nest of robins in her hair;
\nUpon whose bosom snow has lain;
\nWho intimately lives with rain.
\nPoems are made by fools like me,
\nBut only God can make a tree.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"