Poetry Thursday - a surprising relevance to trees

Most of my day was taken up by going, on the spur of the moment, to Kew Gardens for another Tree Walk, which they have been offering in September. What a lovely day for it, the grass still dewy underfoot but the sky mostly blue and the air warm. And the trees turning towards their autumn colours. 

So today's poem comes from the "Trees Be Company" book that I often turn to. The arrangement of poems in the book is alphabetical by title; this is the one nearest to where "Kew..." might be.

Lucombe Oak at Kew Gardens

'It is not growing like a tree'

     It is not growing like a tree

     In bulk, doth make Man better be;

Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,

To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere:

          A lily of a day

          Is fairer far in May,

     Although it fall and die that night;

    It was the plant and flower of Light.

In small proportions we just beauties see;

And in short measure life may perfect be.

     -Ben Johnson (1572-1637)