“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.”

- Khalid Gibran

Khalil Jubran was born Jan. 6, 1883, to Kamila Jubran and her second husband, Khalil Sa’d Jubran, in the village of Bisharri in what was then Ottoman Syria but is now northern Lebanon.

He moved to America with his mother and siblings and went to school. The school gave him the American form and spelling of his last name, Gibran.

He was a poet, a painter and a writer - a romantic rather than a realist. Yet, there is room for both the romantic and the realist in the world of trees.

A romantic may look at the beauty and poetry of the trees around them.

To the romantic, the tree represents spirituality and the idea that as we live and die, the tree endures. They imagine children in the community playing under the towering trees, grown tall and strong long after the tree planter is gone.

A realist might say a tree provides oxygen for our world, while absorbing carbon dioxide. It makes a bare space softer, a gray space greener. It provides shade, wood, fruits, nuts and oils.

To the realist, the tree represents an object that can be used to benefit the community.

It was my privilege to accept an Arbor Day certificate April 30 to commemorate the planting of a tree on Front Street. This was awarded to honor the library staff for the reading programs they initiated at the library.

The borough shade tree commission has worked tirelessly for many years, and we thank members for their work.

Whether you are a romantic or realist, trees are a great benefit to our community.

“Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

- Warren Buffett

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NEW BOOKS

Fiction: “Clive Cussler’s Dark Vector,” Graham Brown; “Hope Creek,” Janet Dailey; “The Honeymoon Cottage,” Lori Foster; “Meant To Be,” Emily Giffin; “Sound of Darkness,” Heather Graham; “Sparring Partners,” John Grisham; “The Hotel Nantucket,” Elin Hilderbrand; “The Boardwalk Bookshop,” Susan Mallery; “Nightwork,” Nora Roberts; “When She Dreams,” Amanda Quick; “The Good Left Undone,” Adriana Trigiani; “The Summer Place,” Jennifer Weiner

Nonfiction: “Silent Invasion: The Untold Story of the Trump Administration, COVID-19 and Preventing the Next Pandemic Before It’s Too Late,” Deborah Birx; “Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder and Surviving Vladimir Putin’s Wrath,” Bill Browder; “How to Prevent the Next Pandemic,” Bill Gates; “Out of the Corner,” Jennifer Grey; “To the Uttermost Ends of the Earth: The Epic Hunt for the South’s Most Feared Ship and the Greatest Sea Battle of the Civil War,” Phil Keith and Tom Clavin; “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future,” Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns

Juvenile: “DC League of Super-Pets: The Deluxe Junior Novelization,” David Lewman; “The Curse of the Cat-Eye Jewel (LEGO Ninjago),” Tracey West; “The Lair of Tanabrax (LEGO Ninjago),” Tracey West; “The Maze of the Sphinx (LEGO Ninjago),” Tracey West

Young adult: “The Agathas,” Kathleen Glasglow and Liz Lawson; “The Counselors,” Jessica Goodman; “Two Truths and a Lie,” April Henry; “Family of Liars,” E. Lockhart; “See You Yesterday,” Rachel Lynn Solomon

Children’s picture books: “Wonderful You: With the Grouchy Ladybug,” Eric Carle; “There Was an Old Scientist Who Swallowed a Dinosaur,” Lucille Colandro; “Llama Llama Back to School,” Anna Dewdney and Reed Duncan; “The Superpower Sisterhood,” Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush; “This Book Will Get You To Sleep!” Jory John; “When Glitter Met Glue,” Karen Kilpatrick; “Oceans of Love,” Janet Lawler; “Rainy Day! (Blue’s Clues & You) Step Into Reading Level 1,” Mary Man-Kong; “Richard Scarry’s 5-Minute Stories,” Richard Scarry; “Not Quite Narwhal,” Jessie Sima; “The One and Only Sparkella Makes a Plan,” Channing Tatum

Children’s board books: “The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s First Day of Summer (The World of Eric Carle),” Eric Carle