When I was a child ‘memory work’ was very important in school. As a child, it was a big effort to learn prayers by rote, to memorize perfectly the answers to the questions in our Catechism, and to memorize certain numbers of lines of poetry.
Then later in life I began to understand all the things I had memorized as a child. The prayers, Catechism answers and poems, were no longer just words strung together but the words I had memorized found their way to my heart.
Trees by Joyce Kilmer, is one of the poems that touches my heart every year as I ponder their awe-inspiring beauty in the Autumn of their lives. I’ve even found that my memory works best when I sing the poem.
May these words reach your heart today.
-Sister Elaine Cole, csj
Trees
I think that I shall never see
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.
Joyce Kilmer, 1886-1918
Images: Ricardo Gomez Angel @rgaleriacom | Aaron Burden @aaronburden Unsplash