ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

How Many Trees?

© Stephen Whiteside 15.07.2012

How many trees do you need for an owl
To flip and to flap on its predat’ry prowl?
How many trees do you need for a quoll
To scurry along on its leisurely stroll?
How many trees do you need for a glider
To get enough berries and insects inside ’er?
How many trees do you need for a hawk
To soar and to swoop and to hunt and to stalk?
How many trees for a shy potoroo?
I do not know just how many. Do you?

If we stopped cutting down the ones we have we would probably have enough Stephen

Another American Indian saying and yes I know it is not Australian but couldn't find an Aboriginal one that suited but I am sure the feeling is mutual regardless of race, or country

Only when the last tree has been cut down; Only when the last river has been poisoned; Only when the last fish has been caught; Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.

Thank you for this, Maureen.

42 - good one Stephen.

Has inspired me to knock one up along the same lines but I'll leave
posting for a while - don't want to appear to be bad mannered.

No, go for it, Dennis!

It will all be solved when the Greens realize their ambition to eliminate humans from the planet.

Joyce Kilmer famously wrote

I think that I shall never see
a poem as lovely as a tree.......
Poems are made by fools like me
but only God can make a tree.

I can understand this attitude, Neville, but it's going to be a lonely old place when humans have eliminated all other life forms from the planet. I guess there are a few germs that will hang around to keep us company. (Looks like I've got one at the moment...)

Yes, owls prefer trees, too.

And frogmouths too ( they are not owls ) I sold a painting in the local art show last week and you might be pleased Stephen to know that it was a nature study of a tawny frogmouth under the light of the full moon.