Flowers For Socrates

by NONA BLYTH CLOUD

Trees are becoming more important all the time. They produce almost one-third of the oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere. Trees are a major source of food, building materials, paper, medicine, cloth, and thousands of other things we use every day. For many people, their first bed is a cradle or crib made of wood, and their last resting place is a wooden coffin.  Children climb trees, adults find it restful to sit in their shade, and we often plant trees in memory of loved ones.

The first Arbor Day in the U.S. was held in Nebraska in April, 1872, and the first U.S. National Forests were established in 1891.

So this Word Cloud is in honor of trees. We’d be lost without them.

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Pear Tree

by H. D.

Silver dust
lifted from the earth,
higher than my arms reach,
you have mounted.
O silver,
higher than my arms reach
you front us with great mass;

no flower ever opened
so staunch a white leaf,
no flower ever parted silver
from such rare silver;

O white pear,
your flower-tufts,
thick on the branch,
bring summer and ripe fruits
in their purple hearts.

“Pear Tree” is in the public domain

H.D. (1886-1961) born as Hilda Doolittle. In 1911, she went to Europe, intending to stay just for the summer, but remained abroad for the rest of her life. She became one of the leaders of the Imagist movement, a reaction to the excesses of Victorian and Romantic poetry. She published numerous poetry collections, including Sea Garden, Red Roses from Bronze and Helen in Egypt

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