Happy Arbor Day & Merry May Day!

Hello everyone:

May Day is this coming Windsday! Jack Frost has gone North (at long last) for his annual summer vacation! We can enjoy flowers, birds, and trees as the springtime exuberantly celebrates this delightful holiday! Here are some poems to help you get started with your May Day celebrations. (Tomorrow is Arbor Day, BTW!)

“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.

“Song on May Morning” (1632)

By John Milton (1608-1674)

Now the bright Morning Star, Day’s harbinger,

Comes dancing from the East, and leads with her

The flowery May, who from her green lap throws

The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose.

Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire

Mirth, and youth, and warm desire!

Woods and groves are of thy dressing;

Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing.

Thus we salute thee with our early song,

And welcome thee, and wish thee long.

“The Flowers”

By Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

From A Child's Garden of Verses (1885)

All the names I know from nurse:

Gardener's garters, Shepherd's purse,

Bachelor's buttons, Lady's smock,

And the Lady Hollyhock.

Fairy places, fairy things,

Fairy woods where the wild bee wings,

Tiny trees for tiny dames--

These must all be fairy names!

Tiny woods below whose boughs

Shady fairies weave a house;

Tiny tree-tops, rose or thyme,

Where the braver fairies climb!

Fair are grown-up people's trees,

But the fairest woods are these;

Where, if I were not so tall,

I should live for good and all.

“Dandelions”

By Evaleen Stein (1863-1923)

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!

Happy Arbor Day, Merry Marathon Weekend, and Happy May Day!

Rob