'Trees' follow-up

Gerry Patterson of Mt. Lebanon, a former PG editor: "Your 'Trees' item brought back a hilarious memory for me. I can still conjure up the sight of a stocky New York World-Telegram photog, box camera in one hand, dragging a sizeable limb from the tree that had inspired Joyce Kilmer's poem through the vast city room and planting it by the city desk. This was in the early '60s and the stately white oak, a landmark on the Rutgers University campus, had finally succumbed to illness, and the press was invited to New Brunswick to record its removal. The souvenir branch that the photographer made off with was left leaning against a pillar over the city editor's shoulder for months. When anyone inquired what the bow, with its brown, crinkly leaves, was doing in the middle of a busy newsroom, the answer was simply: "Oh that, that's just the Kilmer tree."

Jim C. on "Trees'" reputation as a bad poem: "'Trees' might be of 'scribbled-on-the-back-of-a-shopping-list' quality. But I have to tell you that compared to the scraped-off-the-bottom-of-boots-after-tromping-through-a compost-heap, F-minus-minus, god-awful, eight-steps-below-entry-level pieces of crap that pass for 'poetry' published each Saturday in One of America's Great Newspapers, 'Trees' approaches the level of Shakespearean sonnets."

Anonymous: "You do not have to go far for a remembrance of Joyce Kilmer's 'Trees.' There's one in South Park on Corrigan Drive, the main road in the park. It's called the Joyce Kilmer Circle and has a copy of the poem (or at least part of it) on a stone tablet in the middle of the circle."

Several readers defended "Trees," and one woman who grew up in New Castle remembers having to sing the poem in school, even warbling a few bars on the phone to prove it. The Morning Filer-in-chief, too, had to sing it back at Holy Trinity elementary, and still can, though it's not on my karaoke list.

A plug for fluorescents

Bob Podurgiel: "Recently I replaced all my incandescent bulbs with fluorescent bulbs and found my electric bill did indeed go down by almost 25 percent. I figure in three months I'll save enough on my bill to pay for the bulbs. Although the bulbs are priced slightly higher than incandescents, they can last far longer -- up to nine years.

My friend Jack has been using one as a porch light, all night every night, and he hasn't had to change it in four years. He became interested because of their longevity, since he has to get on a ladder and unscrew the glass covering over the porch light to change the light, which is a chore at age 74. He is gradually changing all his lights as the old incandescent ones burn out.

A 14-watt fluorescent gives the same light as a 60-watt traditional bulb, and a 24-watt fluorescent has the same brightness as a 100-watt incandescent. With electricity rates going up, the bulbs are not only good for the environment, but good for the pocketbook. Thanks for mentioning them."

Pelican brief

Reader Arthur Gorr contributed this poem as a postscript to an item a while ago about the pelican who ate a pigeon in a London park:

An amazing bird is the pelican
His mouth can hold more than his bellycan
He takes in his beak enough food for a week
Though I don't see how the helican.