An oak tree and a rosebush grew, Young and green together, Talking the talk of growing things- Wind and water and weather. And while the rosebush sweetly bloomed The oak tree grew so high That now it spoke of newer things- Eagles, mountain peaks and sky. "I guess you think you're pretty great," The rose was heard to cry, Screaming as loud as it possibly could To the treetop in the sky. "And now you have no time for flower talk, Now that you've grown so tall." "It's not so much that I've grown," said the tree, "It's just that you've stayed so small.

Silverstein composed original music for several films and displayed a musical versatility in these projects playing guitar piano saxophone and trombone. He told Jean Mercier of PubliShel Silversteinrs Weekly: "When I was a kid—12 to 14 around there—I would much rather have been a good baseball player or a hit with the girls but I couldn't play ball. Employing a sketchbook format with typewriter-styled captions he documented his own experiences at such locations as a New Jersey nudist colony the Chicago White Sox training camp San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district Fire Island Mexico London Paris Spain and Africa.

Sheldon Allan "Shel" Silverstein (September 25 1930 – May 8/9 1999) was an American poet singer-songwriter cartoonist screenwriter and author of children's books. He styled himself as Uncle Shelby in his children's books. Translated into more than 30 languages his books have sold over 20 million copies.