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lowing Rock. Vermont. Arapahoe. These place names are not normally on the same line.

If you want to see fall colors, most folks may think a trip to the North Carolina mountains is required. Some may even venture to New England for autumn splendor. But some of that color is right here at home – in “the county.”

Here’s some color found on Hwy 306 just north of Arapahoe.

The tree.

Poet Joyce Kilmer helped humanity discover the beauty found in a single tree. This maple on NC 306 is just such a tree.

The clouds on this November day offered a soft, diffused light enhancing the camera’s ability to record color detail.

The weathered barn in the background looks like it might be the North Carolina mountains.

Weathered boards of the barn are framed by branches of the maple.

Backlit leaves.

The view from above.

Branches from an adjacent holly tree mingle with the maple leaves.

I 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.

Joyce Kilmer

Alfred Joyce Kilmer (1886 – 1918) was an American writer and poet mainly remembered for a short poem titled “Trees” (1913), which was published in the collection “Trees and Other Poems” in 1914. Kilmer was killed in 1918, serving in the United States Army during World War I in France.

Posted Friday November 29, 2019 by Ben Casey