Counting-Out Rhyme

(Blue Sky by Emily Carr, 1871-1945, Canadian
writer and painter whose work celebrated the
cultures of the Indians of the Pacific Northwest.)

We all notice the colors of the leaves on the trees in Autumn. It’s the poet who notes that the barks of those trees also have varied hues.

COUNTING-OUT RHYME

Silver bark of beech, and sallow
Bark of yellow birch and yellow
Twig of willow.

Stripe of green in moosewood maple,
Color seen in leaf of apple,
Bark of popple.*

Wood of popple pale as moonbeam,
Wood of oak for yoke and barn-beam,
Wood of hornbeam.

Silver bark of beech, and hollow
Stem of elder, tall and yellow
Twig of willow.

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950), American poet

* popple - poplar