MARCIA & HER WILLOW TREE

Marcia Norwood
America's STORYTELLER
Telling Untold Stories in Photographs, Prose and Public Speaking

What is your favorite tree? 

River Birch Tree in Secret Garden.  RMH, Chicago.  Copyright 2010 Marcia Norwood

Mom's Handwriting on Back of Photo, 1958

The first tree I planted was a  
weeping willow tree 
at our house 
in Liberty, Missouri.  

I loved that tree.  
It grew up with me.
  
Mom took a photo in 1958,  
(I was nine years old)
and wrote on the back:
"Marcia and her Willow Tree."

Everyone knew I loved that tree.

Marcia & Her Willow Tree.  Copyright 1958 Marcia Norwood

I memorized Joyce Kilmer's poem in elementary school, and can still recite most of it. 

I'll bet you can, too.

TREES

by: Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)

THINK that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

 

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth's sweet 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.

"Trees" was originally published in Trees and Other Poems.

 Joyce Kilmer. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1914.
 

Copyright 2010 Marcia Norwood

Confession  

 I thought Joyce Kilmer was a girl for the longest time.  

Turns out Kilmer is a man:  
            an American hero, 
                         who was awarded the  Croix de Guerre (War Cross) 
                                  by the French Republic.

Joyce Kilmer

Born: Alfred Joyce Kilmer

1886-1918
Journalist, Literary Critic, Lecturer, and Editor

American writer and poet...mainly remembered for a short poem

 titled, "Trees"  which was published in the collection

Trees and Other Poems in 1914.

 

Copyright 2010 Marcia Norwood

 Kilmer enlisted in the New York National Guard,

and was deployed to France with the
 69th Infantry Regiment

(the famous "Fighting 69th") in 1917.

He was killed by a sniper's bullet 
at the Second Battle of the Marne in 1918
at the age of 31.

Alfred Joyce Kilmer was married to Aline Murray, 
also an accomplished poet and author, 
with whom he had five children.

   The following information provided by:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Kilmer

Sgt. Joyce Kilmer, as a member of the Fighting 69th Infantry Regiment, United States Army, c. 1918

During the Second Battle of Marne, there was heavy fighting throughout the last days of July 1918. On 30 July 1918, Kilmer volunteered to accompany Major William "Wild Bill" Donovan (later, in World War II, the founder of the Office of Strategic Services—forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency) when Donovan's Battalion (1–165th Infantry) was sent to lead the day's attack.

During the course of the day, Kilmer led a scouting party to find the position of a German machine gun. When his comrades found him, some time later, they thought at first that he was peering over the edge of a little hill, where he had crawled for a better view. When he did not answer their call, they ran to him and found him dead.

According to Father Francis P. Duffy: “A bullet had pierced his brain. His body was carried in and buried by the side of Ames. God rest his dear and gallant soul.”

A sniper's bullet likely killed him immediately. According to military records, Kilmer died on the battlefield near Muercy Farm, beside the Ourcq River near the village of Seringes-et-Nesles, in France, on 30 July 1918 at the age of 31.

For his valor, Kilmer was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre (War Cross) by the French Republic.

Kilmer was buried in the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery and Memorial, near Fere-en-Tardenois, Aisne, Picardy, France.

A cenotaph erected to his memory is located on the Kilmer family plot in Elmwood Cemetery, in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

A memorial mass was held at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan on 14 October 1918.

 ^{CLICK on the link or} 

^{COPY & PASTE the link in your browser:}

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Kilmer} 

^{Many writers parodied Kilmer's work and style - including Ogden Nash, who parodied "Trees."}  

^{"I think that I shall never see}

^{A billboard lovely as a tree.}

^{Indeed, unless the billboards fall,}

^{I'll never see a tree at all."}

^{Ogden Nash}

^{Song of the Open Road}

^{Many Long Years Ago, 1945}

 

Billboard at Precious Moments Chapel, Carthage, Missouri.  Copyright 2008 Marcia Norwood

^{Kilmer had several critics - including his contemporaries and modern scholars - who disparaged his work as being too simple, overly sentimental.  They suggested his style was far too traditional - even archaic.}  

^{No wonder I like Kilmer's poem.}   

 

^{I'm simple,}

^{and overly sentimental...}

^{and kinda traditional.}

^{If it's archaic  (primitive,}  

^ancient, 

^old) 

^{to find beauty} 

^{in trees...}

^{then I'm in good company with Alfred Joyce Kilmer.}

Marcia & Baby Doll "swim" in Laundry Tub.  Copyright 1950 Marcia Norwood

How about you?! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Come back often, and bring a friend!

Marcia   
Norwood,  
Tree Lover
America's STORYTELLER
Telling Untold Stories in Photographs, Prose and Public Speaking