Trees Triptych
acrylic on canvas 45” x 30”
I first read “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer, when I was in high school. I remember sitting in my desk at school on a very normal day and being struck with the beauty and truth of such a simply stated poem. It seemed to me that Kilmer had summed up treeness in a most perfectly succinct way.
Critics have disparaged Kilmer's work as being too simple and overly sentimental. These criticisms beg debate as the popularity of “Trees” has withstood the test of time, but still, the critics do have a point. To me, Kilmer’s simplicity and sentimentality are perfectly matched with his content in this poem as he was musing on a tree—not societal ills, intense personal angst or some prodigious question of humanity—just, a tree. (And, in this complicated world full of complicated language, who doesn’t love a poem you can understand the first time around now and then?!)
Kilmer’s self-deprecating tone resonates with me as the seemingly effortless beauty and grandeur of natural elements as subject matter often gives me pause for an eye roll and a sigh as I apply my meager skills to subjects whose inherent artistry is cosmically beyond any talent I’ll ever have. Fools indeed.
