Planet of the Bugs

Molting habits may have led to extinction of once hardy trilobite
Semiaquatic Silurian Scorpions

Poems that make grown men cry

She was deep within herself, like a woman heavy with child
Ithaka
Better by far you should forget and smile Than that you should remember and be sad
Peer Gynt: The Priest's Monologue
while grass and buildings and the somnolent river, who know they are allowed to last forever,
- Not all rivers are allowed to last forever. Our village's river has dried up.
That everything's remade With shovel and spade;
No painting had ever made me cry
The mercury sank in the mouth of the dying day. What instruments we have agree The day of his death was a dark cold day.
"Paternal Love will only use Force in the last resort On those too bumptious to repent."
So many poems about the deaths of animals. Wilbur’s toad, Kinnell’s porcupine, Eberhart’s squirrel,

Photorealism

When a photo is taken in a studio, some elements are crafted. Will it make us understand photorealism better that it is an inclusion of everything in daily life without craft?

Paintings of still life that at once look real and as a photograph are very often in your mailbox forwarded by friends who cant believe that paintings can be done so realistically. Photorealism is one subject which divides a clear line between those who get it and those who dont. For one side if its skill and tradition, for the others it lacks artists perspective. For such a disputed topic, 'Photorealism: Beginnings to Today" has a great section of Artists Biographies which summarise the artists view of why they do photorealistic paintings.
For one artist, "changing the size of an object lets them explore its reality" like Georgia O keefe's flower paintings, for another, "cropping of the subject enforces tight composition", yet another shows "how people need chrome in a painting to see themselves". One artist convinces himself that he is creating everything he is painting.
For such a divisive topic, I would have liked more essays than available in the book.

In 'the Ignorant Maestro', Itay Talgam asks "How would you like walking into a Van Gogh exhibition in which all the paintings had recently been "upgraded" so the gaps between the painter's view of the landscape and the "real" view we know from everyday experience has been eliminated?". Perhaps the photorealistic is to show that there is always a gap, even if the painter tries to make the painting seem real, as there is his interpretation present in it always. Zeno's paradox.


poetry prompt:
1. Aging, Beauty and Appearance
Find groups of three words from dictionary that make for an interesting beading.

2. "By radically changing the size of everyday objects we can get into them and more easily explore their surfaces and construction -their reality" - Charles Bell

3. Black Glass Still Life with Fish, Pear, Skeleton
What are you likely to compose in your still life?

4. The cropping of the subject enforces a tight composition ..  according to Gus Heinze. What would you choose to crop out?

5. It isnt the reflective quality of chrome as a painting that interests me - its the evidence that they need a certain amount of chrome in their lives, in a figurative sense, in order to see themselves"
What else do people need to see themselves?

6. When I paint water, rocks, sky, trees, chairs, etc., I must imagine touching them, convincing myself, as it were, that I am creating these things in a very real sense. The magic occurs when I believe I have done this
What would you paint to create?

Map

Museum

Ballad
Understanding Wislawa Szymborska
Conversation with a stone

".. lake
that goes unnamed
and doesnt exist on this earth, just as the star
reflected in it is not in the sky."  - Water

Fish to Fish
Inventor of Zero

"The boat from which he stepped into the world, into un-eternity" - Born

Census

The legend of Owl was a baker's daughter in Beheading

children of  Vietnam

Thomas Mann

The Cave

Map Collected and Last poems of Wislawa Szymborska begins with her work from 1944. I am glad I stuck to the book. From Salt 1962 is when I started reading the book with fire. From then on, each poem had something to offer.
If the poet Wislawa Szymborska were a painter, her painting would be a montage that morphs from a hyperrealistic painting to a revelatory painting, retaining only the necessary objects.
Her poems deal with plain opposites - In 'To My Heart, On Sunday' - its the restlessly working heart on Sabbath rest day.
Her poems deal with movement - In 'The Acrobat' - movement in time (present and future) and space. Sometimes calculated like this and other times, its a huge push to future of

"Nothing - but after us,
who were here before
and ate our hearts
and drank our blood" - Cave poem

Her poems, zoom in on a single in a multitude in 'Snapshot of a Crowd'

Her poems use literary devices like alliteration, string of words
"Moraines and morays and morasses and mussels,
the flame, the flamingo, he flounder, the feather-" - Birthday poem
Her poems usually a page and a half long arrive by the end of the page, the next half is a bonus. Unlike some poets, you dont have to wait
till the end.

poetry prompt

1. write an  Inverted poem
2. write a Soliloquy
3. I prefer earth in civvies. Write a 'I prefer' poem.
4. I am Tarsier. Write from a different point of view.
5. To my heart on Sunday. Heart works endlessly even on Sabbath rest day. Any such opposites strike you?
6. The Acrobat places the performer in time and space, weaves through it as he moves. Are you amazed by any movement?
7. Snapshot of a Crowd. Multitude to a single. Can you zoom in on a tree in  a forest, grain in sand?
8. Dinosaur Skeleton. Addressing in many different ways, mocking the addressed.
9. Pi

Night walk

A walk in the stars
Orion, Polaris
spiders and crickets

The Lost Perfume

Did you get the whiff of
gift perfume that
cleaved from its companion
traveled in my pocket
and went back with me

Months and years later
its gone

Ten Windows

On Ten Windows
Language wakes up in the morning on poetrys speaking

1. The stillness of the world before Bach . What will your 'before' poem be on?

From the New world

Masaccio's expulsion
Linda Pastan and Jorie Graham

The last two seconds

Lions and Tigers

Excerpt

ivory figurine lady doctor

Poetry Prompt.

1. Both these poems below have their first lines as a rephrase of their titles. As if it were a question- answer response type or title standing out as something that came into place after the poem has happened.

The perpetual night she went into
Except for being it was relatively painless

2. Look at long explanation of words and see if they strike a chord
Close Observation Especially of one under Suspicion is from the dictionary's meaning of Surveillance

3. In Had there been, there is a corner, a murder takes place. Poets have a thing for corners.
In Sketching for poets, robert hass talks of a corner as an inspiration for a poem.
Do you have a corner like that?

4. What do you think of anything?
since a symbol is nothing but an illustration

Dreams of Freedom

Dreams of Freedom In words and Pictures has a variety of illustrations to go with the quotes that have been selected from people who have fought for different kinds of freedom. Right to education from Malala Yousafzai is definitely easier to relate for kids. In that vein, I am thinking that a quote from Emelin aged 15 from Guatamela who spoke at the United Nations would be more inspiring for kids to fight for their rights. The Little Dutch Boy who saved Holland was captivating to me as a child, as it was a heroic act by child (spoiler - even if its a myth).
The illustrations push me to think of how I would put my favourite quotes and words in pictures.
The quotes meld into the pictures, be it as an outline of wings that a tortured handicapped person wishes for or like a trapeze of people flying free. scrap book effect. Poster style. Story style.

The Big Great green Book

This whole year, every morning I wake to a message and illustration by Chandler kids for conservation regarding preservation of our environment and our limited sources that sustain us. Kids have a way of looking at things differently from us and as the The Great Big Green Book shows in the 'Invent' Section of alternate ways of living and harnessing destructive energies in unthought of ways.
This book is a good way to inform and get the kids brainstorming about what they think can be done differently so their future generations have the biosphere unharmed. The illustrations are very cute for a red alarm message that has lost its meaning for our generation in the climate change conspiracy debate. Having a cat think what this all means for itself, encourages kids to put themselves in others shoes. like say plant or animal kingdom with respect to human action consequences.

Dr Hummingbird

As a child I read about hummingbirds as the only birds that can fly backwards and live in the Americas. Before I got into birdwatching, I heard from a friend in California, that she saved a hummingbird in a shoebox, with soft cotton as bedding. And then they became a common sight but a mommy hummingbird sitting over that tiny nest in the Sonoran Museum in Tucson. Imagine their tiny eggs.

I have read a couple of books on rehabilitation of wild animals. In 'Fastest Things on Wings' Terry Masear, not only talks about the animals in need of saving but also portrays the human, vulnerable side of a rehabilitator.Myths about Hummingbirds as nocturnal. Tree trimming in spring which disturdbs the nestlings right when they are starting. crop of the bird filled with unwanted protein.
Even more to learn is the life of a wildlife rehabilitator. The doubts, the fears and the support from the wise words of Lao Tzu. Even though the author knows so much about hummingbird rehabilitation, she is clueless about helpless ducks which makes her take a second look at her worried hummingbird rescue callers.

If you like glitter wands

Despite how other reviewers are true about how this book is neither a math pro friend nor a newbie's, I like the book for opening my mind to think of the spherical rattle toy and think of geodesic. The book introduces a lot of concepts which are not covered in all Math degree courses. And if your Math has fallen into disuse after years of learning it, this book is a fun way of looking at math in some of everyday objects. Until now pigeonholes were a sweet memory of childhood of a corner shop with hidden goodies in each and now its a theory which can lead you to humorous conclusions if applied in everyday life involving large number of people and limited possibilities. I have been looking at the Green tao Theorem and thinking of a way to show a similar pattern in poetry.
Because of the size of the book, I like to take a look at a page along with its creative picture and learn a new thing each day.

Fresh air of Innovation

'Make your Mark: The Creative's Guide to Building a Business with Impact" introduces readers to never before heard of companies, the folks behind them and their secrets to success. Sugru with their innovative product, Warby Parker with their buy a pair, give a pair, Bonobos with their guideshops that a newspaper called 'that dont sell anything", DODOcase that robes your tablet in an elegant journal look. All those interviewed are very excited about innovation, letting the customers speak for the product and making the product an experience.
Its a good move from the well touted examples of past years.

What is Human?

My toddler and I were watching Kuka Vs Timo Boll to dispel her fear of robots next to her class. While showing this again to friends, I realised how a robot is different from human, especially in a game. Not tiring, physically or emotionally, it has no discouragement or inspiration to push itself. This is where I had the epiphany of how we can learn what it is to be human from robotics, like how they say animals make us human, or the space will let us know more about ourselves.
Why explore space