Notes of Concern…
…Jackson Blair
POEMS, UTOPIAS & TREES
As my readers know, I have been on a crusade to get The Town of Winchendon to remove a dangerous and large hanging tree limb for four weeks. The damage to the tree occurred nine months ago.
It was this ongoing campaign of mine that reminded me of Joyce Kilmer’s beautiful poem:
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.
Probably, at one time or another, we have all heard or read this poem. It is also probable that we have not read it or heard it recently.
While it speaks to trees it symbolizes all of nature to me.
Some have asked why I care at all about a damaged limb in Winchendon. I can provide a short version answer.
I grew up in a small western Pennsylvania town that was written about by Ida Tarbell and others at a time when management and labor were trying to improve the condition of peoples’ lives.
In Capital's Utopia, a book by Anne Mosher she tells the story of my hometown and notes that “it becomes a crucial and unexplored intersection between industrial land use and community planning all wrapped in the issues of economic class and paternalism that defined the Gilded Age.”
“In 1895 a Pittsburgh steelmaster hired the reknowned Boston landscape design firm of Olmstead, Olmstead and Eliot to translate an elaborate urban vision into a design for a modern industrial town…they rendered a design reminiscent of the romantic upper middle class residential suburbs that their firm had created previously for Riverside, IL and Sudbrook, MD.
Graceful curvilinear streets, tastefully arranged oriental trees and shrubs, a full complement of infrastructure…”(Capital’s Utopia)
One of the main features of this beautiful little town with winding streets was the many trees that lined the sidewalks and provided shade to the homes. They were evenly spaced on all residential streets and the pictures of those early years are dramatic. The streets were circular which provided space for small green spaces, little parks, throughout the town. These were places for children to play, adults to sit and read, and they provided peace and serenity when the workday was finished.
Between 1895 and 1995 the town experienced typical suburban difficulties. With the shutting of steel and iron mills the town realized less and less revenue. One of the first pieces of evidence of decline was that dead trees were simply removed and not replaced. Sick trees, or trees with bad limbs, were not taken care of. Wide open spaces began to appear on every residential street and before long, the town bore little resemblance to the beautiful Utopia Mosher and Tarbell wrote about.
In the overall hustle and bustle of life, with all the ups ad downs and problems, the tending to a tree seems a pretty insignificant matter. That said, the beautiful, lush trees that remain in my hometown are now getting a lot of attention, parks are being rehabbed and people are planting seedlings. There is an organized effort to return what was once Capital’s Utopia to the original beauty is presented.
In our little community here in Massachusetts we should look at our streets and our trees and make a commitment to replace every one that dies with one that will grow over the years to provide a replacement for future generations to enjoy. We need to commit to doing all we can to save the ones we have.
When I sit in my backyard and look up at the towering branches, the beautiful green leaves and the way my trees reach for the sky, it seems ennobling. In the fall, these huge trees provide a palette of color that is a gift to my family and me. While winter leaves the branches bare and unattractive, the periodic snowfall that covers them in white provides a winter wonderland outside my windows.
I have to tell you that when I see a large stump in my yard, or along one of our streets, I do think about what the tree that once grew there must have looked like. And then I wonder why someone hasn’t renewed life in that spot, with another tree.
I do not particularly like poetry so it is certain that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree. But I am an unrepentant fan of trees and I hope this little piece will encourage my readers to take a good look at the trees around them, trim when trimming is needed, insist that our elected officials keep our town green with trees and shrubs, and congratulate those good people who every year plant flowers and help to make our public areas more attractive.
In the end, your life will be more pleasant when you are surrounded by this kind of natural beauty, your home’s resell value will increase, and small and big businesses looking at our town as a place for investment will be more likely to want to move here.
The tree problem in Winchendon may be solved by the time this column is in print. Today’s column speaks to the broader issue of our husbandry of the beauty around us.
