History, Natural History & the Arts
Reciprocity
Walking the paved path atop the embankment
leading down to the long-term-care facility,
I recall how poet William Stafford stopped
his car to roll a dead deer off the highway,
down into the canyon below, out of simple
respect for this other blood, in witness to our
reciprocity with the more-than-human world.
On April 30th, 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt opened New York’s World’s Fair with an address in which he praised the commercial festival as a “symbol of peace.” An idea dreamed up at the height of the depression, the theme of the Fair was “The World of Tomorrow.” Its opening slogan was an inspiring “Dawn of New Day.” [Read more…] about Arthur Szyk: The Artist As Soldier
Altostratus
Pressure is in our breath.
Winds in the north veer to the right,
while those to the south veer to the left,
as the light emitted from the sun, turns our
windmills and guides our sailboats.
Just as an airplane stays aloft due to
differing air densities on each side of its wings,
and the ocean of air moves like oceans do.
Evaporating clouds. Air bubbles in the sea.
And didn’t you know that sunsets are merely
filtered rays of red passing through the atmosphere?
For a long time Rotherhithe was London’s natural port, gaining its name from the Anglo-Saxon term for “landing-place for cattle.” There were shipyards in the area from Elizabethan times until the early twentieth century, and working docks until the 1970s. [Read more…] about Engineering Theatre: The Brunel Legacy in London & New York
A Mountain Prayer
I kneel so that I may remember this
without words, this mountain without
a wasted breath speaks and I want to
remember the way I felt listened to.
So I close my eyes and breathe in the aroma
I smell peeled apple and peppermint, moss
and dried roses, orange blossom water in my throat
and I taste the words of the mountain, a few drops
that make me swirl in wild silence
the mountain is calm, always
in the way it notices the offerings of mortals
it stands untouched, in my arms
as a hay field holds the Sun’s amber light.
Defrocked priest and poet Lorenzo Da Ponte wrote the words for Mozart’s three celebrated operas Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, and Così fan tutte. As the librettist’s ultimate challenge is creating character whilst thinking music, few could match Lorenzo’s achievement. [Read more…] about A Rascal in Venice, Hero in Vienna, Opera Buff in Manhattan
The Way Archimedes Proved Ideas
If all the pencils and pens
in the world disappeared,
I would write your name
in the ashes on the hearth.
If all the paper burned
into smoke and computers
went suddenly dark,
I would scribble it,
in the bath, in the suds
of my oily skin.
If the damp sands washed
away with the tide,
leaving the beach alone,
I would go to the floor of
my basement and draw it
in the dust.
In August 1664 four English frigates sailed into the harbor of New Amsterdam, demanding the surrender of New Netherland. The colony was provisionally ceded by Peter Stuyvesant. He subsequently sent a delegation to sign the Articles of Capitulation. New Amsterdam was reincorporated under English law as the city of New York. Soon after the Second Anglo-Dutch (Sea) War broke out in which Charles II unsuccessfully tried to end Dutch domination of world trade. [Read more…] about Exchanging New Amsterdam for Paramaribo
A Whine Not a Rant
My late sister Karen was our camping family’s
early warning system for mosquito bites.
When she got bitten, the rest of us knew we
had ten minutes to put on repellant—or else.
Repellants began as 612 liquid then gave way
to Off spray and now anything laced with deet.
If you were nostalgic, Woodsman’s Fly Dope
doubled as backpacker deodorant. Its pine-tar
fumes smothered yours and kept other folks
well outside your body-odor dissipation zone.
My friend Raoul romanced Woodsman’s
one teen summer, which may be why after
med school he would specialize in infectious
diseases of internal medicine, not dermatology.
It’s known that only female mosquitoes bite
humans, so if one bites a woman, regardless
of race, might that still be illegal in Georgia?
Mosquitoes model why one person can truly
make a real difference—if you’ve ever spent
the night alone with the bug in your pup tent.
Never Judge
a bourbon
by the memories
of childhood
judge it by the way
it makes you remember
being a child
never wasting
any chance