This Magnificent Tree, Fred Rogers and Dr. Seuss

This blog mirrors sugar season in that there’s no predicting what course it will take each year. Imagine my surprise and delight in finding the following unsolicited blog offering in my mailbox this morning.

NOTABLE MAPLES DEPT:

Christian (crew ’15 and ’16) writes:

a poem inspired by this magnificent tree, fred rogers and dr. seuss.

seven score years and seventeen
a long time for a thing it seems
ne’er tapped or toppled nor woodsman gleaned
escaped the paper factory ream

from summer thrush
to winter finch
every year a quarter inch
it perseveres through rain and snow
and frozen arctic winds that blow
up here it sits where no one goes
nature’s statue
all alone

i beg you all to take a walk
and ponder all things leaf and stalk
imagine if these trees could talk
“i’d like to see a different rock”

if trees could walk
where would they go
to the rivers down below
or way up high
a lofty peak
what kind of places would they seek

dip its roots in for a swim
hike the long trail on a whim
or brave the desert’s dusty air
to sniff a cactus flower there

would it leave us all behind
to find itself a warmer clime
“catch you all on island time”
margarita and a lime

i’d like to think just for a day
this mighty tree could get away
but at its post it chose to stay
to guard the hill another day

-ct

FIELD TRIP: Christian says, “[The Lorax] is  right next to whatever contraption is left at the top of the old t-bar (or ancient rope tow) at the Toll House, on the weird loop that they still mow that isn’t connected to any other trail, between Toll Road and the Derby.”