TREES:
DID YOU KNOW. . . ?

There are very few “tree surgeons” anymore, because, unlike human surgeons, they tend to fall out of their patients.

Many other things live intimately with rain: buildings, rocks, cars, lawns, rivers, mountains, bicycles, streets, and just about anything outside.

Since its original publication this poem has been reprinted in over 3000 anthologies and reprint volumes of Kilmer’s works. The paper for these publications was made from the equivalent of eight acres of prime virgin forest.

Always the tree lover, Kilmer refused to allow anyone to burn wood in the fireplace in his home, instead providing warmth for his family with the carcasses of chipmunks, squirrels and the occasional hobo found along the highway.

Joyce Kilmer’s father was a chemist for the Johnson and Johnson company and is credited with creation of their famous baby powder. Although Dr. Frederick Barnett Kilmer was proud of his creation, his son never spoke to him for the rest of his life, declaring, “Only God can make baby powder!!”