Happy Arbor Day! :)

Dear Members, Alumni, and Friends of the James Scholar Advisory & Leadership Team:

Today, the last Friday in April, is Arbor Day throughout the United States. It’s a great day to spend some time outdoors, enjoy Nature’s hidden wonder all around us, and maybe even plant a tree for the future! This bouquet of poems was chosen in honor of Arbor Day and the beautiful springtime that we’re having in Central Illinois.

“Trees” by Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the sweet earth’s 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.

Prologue to the Canterbury Tales

By Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)

When April with his showers sweet with fruit

The drought of March has pierced unto the root

And bathed each vein with liquor that has power

To generate therein and sire the flower;

When Zephyr also has, with his sweet breath,

Quickened again, in every holt and heath,

The tender shoots and buds, and the young sun

Into the Ram one half his course has run,

And many little birds make melody

That sleep through all the night with open eye

(So Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage) –

Then do folk long to go on pilgrimage,

And palmers to go seeking out strange strands,

To distant shrines well known in sundry lands.

Selected Poems by Evaleen Stein (1863-1923)

“Dandelion”

Hey-a-day-a-day, my dear! Dandelion time!

Come, and let us make for them a pretty little rhyme!

See the meadows twinkling now, beautiful and bright

As the sky when through the blue shine the stars at night!

Once upon a time, folks say, mighty kings of old

Met upon a splendid field called “The Cloth of Gold.”

But, we wonder, could it be there was ever seen

Brighter gold than glitters now in our meadows green?

Dandelions, dandelions, shining through the dew,

Let the kings have Cloth of Gold, but let us have you!

“Up, Little Ones!”

A robin redbreast, fluting there

Upon the apple-bough,

Is telling all the world how fair

Are apple-blossoms now;

The honey-dew its sweetness spills

From cuckoo-cups, and all

The crocuses and daffodils

Are dressed for festival!

Such pretty things are to be seen,

Such pleasant things to do,

The April earth it is so green,

The April sky so blue,

The path from dawn to even-song

So joyous is to-day,

Up, little ones! and dance along

The lilac-scented way!

Happy Arbor Day & Merry Marathon Weekend! :)

Rob