A Poem about Trees

Julie Brown teaches English 11 AP, Journalism, Cinema Study, and Creative Writing at Bolingbrook High School, Bolingbrook, Illinois. I matched her untitled poem with one of my photos to create a page from my upcoming work, Reflections: A Collection of Poems, Photos, and More. I added the quotation that precedes the poem.

        This book is designed to inspire class discussion that leads to written compositions. Feel free to download  this combination for use in your classroom. By the way, you can click on the photo to enlarge it.

"I like trees because they seem to be more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do."                       Willa Cather

 

                                             every year, it's always the same

                                             the brown, rough statues stand tall

                                             feet firmly planted in the ground

                                             hoping to grow, reaching the sky

                                             just out of grasp

                                             then come the pesky green dots

                                             spots of color--until mid-spring

                                             then they are in full force

                                             waving, swinging, attracting attention

                                             the trees just sigh and stand

                                             by autumn, they've had enough

                                             they start to burn the leaves off

                                             slowly, one by one

                                             green to yellow to red to brown

                                             as they fall, the trees regret

                                             winter's here and they've lost their coats.

 

Photo Copyright © 2010 by Hank Kellner      

Poem Copyright © 2010 by Julie Brown

Write What You See and Prufrock Press

Published by Cottonwood Press in 2009, Write What You See: 99 Photos To Inspire Writing by Hank Kellner is now marketed by Prufrock Press, http://www.prufrock.com.  This thought-provoking collection contains photographs and a wide variety of inventive writing prompts to motivate students.

     Written by a veteran of the Korean War and retired educator who has served as an English Department supervisor and adjunct associate professor of English at the community college level, Write What you See includes a CD-Rom and a special section telling how teachers nationwide use photos to inspire writing. 118 pages, 8 1/2 X 11, Softbound, ISBN 978-1-877673-83-2, Grades 7-12, $24.95