The kids and I each have our own poetry notebooks and we love to write the poem we are working on (with accompanying artwork) in our books. In the Millennial Instructor: Volume 3 there is a whole section of poetry to memorize with the theme of trees.
I chose the well-known poem “Good Timber” by Douglas Malloch. The kids wanted to do the same poem. Here are our notebook pages.
Good Timber
by Douglas Malloch
The tree that never had to fight For sun and sky and air and light, But stood out in the open plain And always got its share of rain, Never became a forest king But lived and died a scrubby thing.
The man who never had to toil To gain and farm his patch of soil, Who never had to win his share Of sun and sky and light and air, Never became a manly man But lived and died as he began.
Good timber does not grow with ease: The stronger wind, the stronger trees; The further sky, the greater length; The more the storm, the more the strength. By sun and cold, by rain and snow, In trees and men good timbers grow.
Where thickest lies the forest growth, We find the patriarchs of both. And they hold counsel with the stars Whose broken branches show the scars Of many winds and much of strife. This is the common law of life.
We talked about the meaning and how it applies to us. We love this video representation of this concept of strong winds making a tree‘s roots stronger. It is so applicable right now with all that has been happening lately.
Enjoy.