Save the Trees??? - A response to J.D. McClatchy's "Resignation" by Nora Kiernan Coyne

In his poem "Resignation", poet J.D. McClatchy expresses his observations of trees. Inspired by a quote by Willa Cather from her 1913 novel, O Pioneers!, McClatchy examines how the birch and oak trees have adjusted and endured to their lives of "sweet familiarity" and "tangled grievances". Unlike Cather, who admires the tree’s submission to all the things life throws at them (termites and such), McClatchy exposes their acceptance of their lives of monotony in which they “are forced to shelter and hide”. I cannot say that I have really thought too much about the lives of trees, but J.D. McClatchy has uncovered to me their lives of terror. If I could give the trees any advice, it would be for them to come out from under the shadows of their acquiescence and reclaim their rightful place in this world, because without them, we would be dead. Perhaps through this poem, McClatchy is making a statement. Conserve paper, because the trees cannot stand up for themselves.