new blogs

Welp,

I've been busy writing lately as you can see... I'm making writing a daily habit at the moment, since I need to gear up for grad school where I will be writing a lot!

Habitat

A habitat is a special place

with food, water, shelter, space.

Plants and animals sometimes leave traces

and sometimes we spy their little faces.

Shhhh! If we tiptoe, we might see

a rabbit or squirrel or bumble bee

or maybe a turtle asleep in the sun

or a lizard or tree frog having fun.

Shhhh! If we listen, we might hear

a cardinal or chickadee or a bluejay's jeer.

A habitat is a type of home, you know,

where plants and animals live and grow.

A habitat is a special place

with food, water, shelter, space!

______________________________

(I wrote this for the 1st graders who came on tour today at the Arboretum and Nature Center. They learned about the 4 things which make up a habitat- food, water, shelter, and space. I admit it's not my best work, but I was trying to keep it as simple as possible and to limit the vocabulary not only to a 1st grade level, but also to the types of organisms found specifically in the Houston Arboretum's ecosystem.)

The Mongolian Steppe

She says she wants a Manchurian yak

and to live in a yurt, which is a kind of tent.

(I'm still not sure what she meant.)

But the thing that I don't understand

is why she'd leave our home for a land

where everyone lives in the open air

and camps out year-round on a giant stair!

_______________________________

(I love puns. After taking a Master Naturalist Class on ecology, I was reminded that the Mongolian Steppe, Canada's tundra, and the Argentinian Pampas are all forms of grasslands. But ask a kid for a definition of "Mongolian Steppe" and you'll get something more like this rhyme.)

The March of Time

Tic toc tic toc.

Seconds slip by my bedroom clock.

Minutes, hours, days and ages

vanish like the once famous sages.

Could the Mayans or Aztecs or Egyptian kings

have known the power of their time machines?

When did man become a slave

to calendars and schedules from birth to the grave?

Tic toc tic toc.

An epoch marches past my clock.

_____________________________________

(Inspired by an article on the discovery of an ancient clock, circa 150 BCE, discovered in 1901 by one of the first underwater archeological expeditions off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera and Crete. An extremely complex gear machine, the Antikythera Mechanism could have changed all of western civilization had it not sunk to the bottom of the sea before reaching its destination- possibly en route to Rome. Dating back more than 2,000 years, this is one of the most complex machines ever discovered with its astronomical calculations.)

Echo Retold

Echo cheated jealous Hera

by chattering to distract her haughty gaze

from wayward Zeus' philandering ways.

Hera, enraged, threatened the nymph

and banned use of her voice at all

except to repeat in answer to someone else's call.

Echo wandered through the woods

and came upon a handsome boy

whose beauty filled her heart with neverending joy.

Narcissus heard someone follow him

and shouted aloud, "Who's here?"

But Echo could not answer, except to repeat in his ear.

Echo fell desperately in love

with Narcissus as he shouted again,

"Come!"  "Come," Echo replied in vain.

She ran to Narcissus deep in the woods,

but when they met, he spurned her affection

and turned to a nearby pool where he was drawn to his reflection.

Narcissus, enchanted by the sight,

fell in love with his own face

and could not tear himself away from that enchanted place.

So Narcissus perished with time

as a love-struck, selfish fool,

while Echo faded away for her unrequited love at the pool.

Now nothing remains but a simple, white flower

which grows in the wood each year

and a voice in the valley beyond which always repeats loud and clear.

_________________________________________________

(Painting: John William Waterhouse- Echo and Narcissus)

Inspired by Kenneth C. Davis' Don't Know Much About Mythology and Waterhouse's painting.