TREE POLKA! 

BY EARTH MAMA 

I wrote this after working with middle school kids who could only name 4 types of trees! There are over 60 tree species listed in this song, including the whole second verse filled with pine trees. Can you smell the forest pines?

Earth Literacy, the art and science of knowing this planet we call Home, the knowing and naming by species and biome, by taste and smell, by season and climate add to the richness of our lives. Earth Literacy is also the key to a sustainable future on our Amazing Earth!

   Learn to dance the polka for great exercise and co-ordination.

Tree Polka by Joyce Johnson Rouse

Oak, elm and poplar

Alder, magnolia and ash

Redbud and linden

Persimmon, apple, sumac

Walnut and hickory

Sweet gum and sycamore, yew

Maple, cherry, pear and myrtle

Cottonwood and spruce

(A verse of pines)

Digger and Jeffrey

Torrey and bristle cone

Lodgepole and bishop

Limber, Apache, knobcone

Sugar, Chihuahua

Whitebark and Monterey

Austrian, Scotch and Coulter

Western, white, Foxtail

Ginkgo and hemlock

Locust and chestnut and birch

Buckeye and laurel

Olive and aspen and fir

Basswood and dogwood

Butternut, cedar and beech

Tulip, chinkopin, mimosa

Willow, palm and peach

©2002 Rouse House Music, ASCAP. All rights reserved. http://www.earthmama.org/home

This Tree Polka blog written by Joyce Rouse was first published in the Children's Music Network blog in December, 2014. Reposted here with their permission.

The Blue Ridge Parkway-A Ribbon of Stone

Come Drive this Ribbon of Beauty

One day as I drove a section the Blue Ridge Parkway, I noted migrating birds and imagined what the Parkway must look like to them, flying high above our terrain. I could picture the curving, undulating road from the sky like a ribbon on patchwork squares of farms and fields, woods and fenced off pasture land. Perhaps it looked like a long narrow rumpled quilt with creases of peak and valley.

Out of this image began music and lyrics fleshing out the many facets of the importance of the Parkway to our nation.  Many years ago, for the 50th anniversary of the Blue Ridge Parkway, I had written and recorded a ballad of the history of the parkway. Now, the deeper cultural and ecological, natural history and artistic aspects called to me to paint a song richer in metaphor, melodically Appalachian and recorded with organic traditional instruments.

 The cultural history of this region is rich with stories of the early settlers, some played out by re-enactors of their brave and rough lives at designated stops on the Parkway.  The music, the handmade, homemade life that became the folk art of this region sprang up along the early trails of America’s First People and wildlife. And from above, to the raptors and songbirds, it might all look like a ribbon stitched on to a verdant quilt—a glimpse of heaven far below.


 A Ribbon of Stone

One of thousands of great views along the Blue Ridge Parkway, American's Favorite Drive.

Here's another song you may enjoy as you drive the Blue Ridge Parkway: Virginia Beauty


   Artist’s Statement:  Joyce Johnson Rouse