Of Trees and Men

I love trees (drawings, photos, old ones in the middle of a field…you get the idea) and I love genealogy (in case you haven’t already figured that out). When I was young and didn’t have any responsibilities (in the good, old days), I loved poetry. I read it and I wrote a little. These days, the only poetry I read or hear is in music lyrics or on facebook.

Around the time I was 13 or 14 years old, I ran across a poem that I loved and although I never memorized it, the line “In trees and men good timbers grow” stuck with me through the years. Last year I searched for it on the internet and found the entire poem and author’s name. I thought I would share it with you. Hope you like it, too.

Good Timber

The tree that never had to fight

For sun and sky and air and light,

But stood out in the open plain

And always got its share of rain,

Never became a forest king

But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil

To gain and farm his patch of soil,

Who never had to win his share

Of sun and sky and light and air,

Never became a manly man

But lived and died as he began.

The stronger wind, the stronger trees;

The further sky, the greater length;

The more the storm, the more the strength.

By sun and cold, by rain and snow,

In trees and men good timbers grow.

Where thickest lies the forest growth,

We find the patriarchs of both.

And they hold counsel with the stars

Whose broken branches show the scars

Of many winds and much of strife.

This is the common law of life.

by Douglas Malloch