Forest Beauty
Trees by Joyce Kilmer
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
Alfred Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918) was considered the leading American Roman Catholic poet and lecturer of his generation. He is best remembered for this short poem, with its famous opening couplet: “I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree.” Kilmer was killed at the Second Battle of Marne in World War One on July 1918, aged just 31.
The Shot
The forest was stunningly beautiful. Kilmer’s opening lines came to mind as I started to admire the majestic trees.
Five years ago, on April 29, I was wandering in the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park in Washington with camera buddies Jon Christofersen and Mike Loebach. While beauty surrounded us, a composition that would do it justice remained hidden. As I mentioned in a previous post, the rain forest was like an explosion in a green spaghetti factory.
It seemed impossible to exclude enough of the chaos to create an orderly sense of visual flow in a composition. I remember reviewing my images that evening and feeling totally frustrated. It wasn’t until five years later that I revisited those images.
I recently processed this photo. This is the closest I’ve come to making photographic sense of this complex ecosystem.
Thanks for looking,
Chuck