Poet-tree - Earle Birney

i fear that i shall never make
a poem slippier than a snake
or oozing with as fine a juice
as runs in girls or even spruce
on i wont make not now nor later
pnomes as luverlee as pertaters
trees is made by fauns or stayrs
but only taters make pertaters
& trees is grown by sun from sod
& so are the sods who need a god
but poettrees lack any clue
they just need me ......& maybe you
==================================
Earle Birney (1904-1995) was a Canadian poet who moved to America but was forced to leave during the '30s for participating in Trotskyist activities. He served in the Canadian Army during World War II.

This poem has some fun with Joyce Kilmer's "Trees" which begins "I think that I shall never see/a poem lovely as a tree" and ends "Poems are made by fools like me,/But only God can make a tree." You can read all six stanzas here.