Trees, T’s and Threes: A trilogy of poems

Here are three poems for your enjoyment. The three poems are alike in some ways and different in others. Their titles all rhyme, they all have rhyming couplets, each has twelve lines and two are parodies of the more serious poem.

Trees by Joyce Kilmer has been learned by countless thousands of schoolchildren since it first appeared in anthologies of poetry too numerous to mention. The second poem T’s is a parody of Kilmer’s poem Trees. T’s refers to US Treasury bills and its author is Michael Silverstein. Silverstein has a clever book of poems called Songs Of Wall Street: An Anthology of Verse for Literary Investors. In it he takes classic poems from Elizabethan England to early 20th century America and puts the original on one page and on the facing page writes a parody with some form of economics and/or the financial markets as the subject. The third poem Threes is a bit of doggerel by yours truly, written in joyous reaction to the parodies of Mr. Silverstein. Mr. Silverstein also notes that the term “triple’ Cs” in his poem refers to a bad junk bond rating. (Joey Connolly)

Joyce Kilmer, on love of oak and pine-TREES

I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed
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 mad by fools like me
But only God can make a tree.

Michael Silverstein, on playing it safe T’s

I long for life that’s worry free
So T-bills are the play for me.

AT whose payout is assured
When other debtors have demurred

AT with coupons never lax
Because they’re backed by income tax

AT that gives a short term edge
Unlike a note or long bond pledge

It always beats inflation, too
And it’s so easy to renew

Junk abounds that’s triple C’s
But only Sam can issue T’s

Joey Connolly, on two plus one of a kind THREES

I think that I would love to see
A funny poem with the subject three

Just add two plus one for a little fun
Then shift into third for a triple home run

Three billy goats gruff said three is a crowd
Three’s a trifecta three little pigs oinked loud

Three little kittens chased three blind mice
Mittenless they gobbled them up in a trice

Three French hens played a third stream jazz classic
On triceratops’s horns made back in the Jurassic

With three card monte three Jacks tried to jerk us
But we saved our bucks for a three-ring circus.