Forests

The forest is my loyal friend,
Like God it useth me.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson


Forests are made for weary men,
That they may find their souls again.
And little leaves are hung on trees
To whisper of old memories.
And trails with cedar shadows black
Are placed there just to lead men back
Past all the pitfalls of success
To boyhood's faith and happiness
Far from the city's craft and fraud,
O Forest, lead me back to God!
-- Mary Carolyn Davies


The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson


Believe one who knows:
You will find something greater in woods than books.
Trees and stones will teach you
that which you can never learn from masters
-Bernard of Clairvaux


The tree which moves some to tears of joy
is in the eyes of others only a green thing
that stands in the way.
Some see nature all ridicule and deformity . . .
and some scarce see nature at all.
But to the eyes of the man of imagination,
nature is imagination itself.
-William Blake


Tree at my window, window tree,
My sash is lowered when night comes on;
But let there never be curtain drawn
Between you and me.
-Robert Frost


Our village life would stagnate if it were not for
the unexplored forests and meadows which surround it.
-Henry David Thoreau


Why are there trees I never walk under
but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me
-Walt Whitman