The Chase and Red

CHAPTER TWO

THE CHASE

The earthbound watchers ran to cars

     To track the disappearing craft.

Meanwhile, though lifting toward the stars

     In their floating windborne raft,

The kids feel joy that nothing mars--

     They looked, and clapped their hands and laughed.

John used his knowledge in the chase.

     He rode the wind and cut the gap,

But not enough.  With Indian grace,

     With chant, with song, with rhythmic clap

He called Blue Herons to the race.

     They thrust him on with each wing flap.

The gap was closed.  John thanked his friends.

     He told the children what to do.

They tied the crafts with cable ends,

     Shut off the heating flame of blue,

And pulled the levers to descend.

     So nothing bad could now ensue.

But unexpectedly they stopped

     And found a rosy light all round.

No one was hurt by this flip/flop

     But neither had they reached the ground.

They'd hit the rainbow, way on top,

     Caught on an airborne, crimson mound.

CHAPTER THREE

RED

Down far below they saw the earth.

     They saw, there, cars in caravan.

Around themselves, for what it's worth,

     All things were pink or red.  "Oh, Man!!"

Said Josh, without a trace of mirth,

     "That headdress there is like a fan!"

Towering above them was a God,

     Red flames and feathers on his head.

"The Sun God!!" John cried, looking odd.

     "Yes.  Greetings,"  the huge being said

And raised his right hand where he stood.

     "Welcome to the Land of Red."

Please, Mister God," Fried blurted out,

     "Sir, can you help us get back home?

Our folks are frantic now, no doubt.

     Your rainbow's nice, it's like a poem,

So pink and pretty all about,

     But down there's where we'd rather roam."

The Sun God smiled, "Of course, my child.

     Just listen to my ancient tale

As it has clues;  just keep them filed

     For use along the rainbow trail

To help with problems, tame or wild,

     Until you reach the Rain God's vale."

Somewhere, over the rainbow

Dedicated to 

Frieda, McKenzie, Joshua and Owen

May you all find many rainbows

Printed in Fort Bragg, California 1996 c

Chapter One

The Start

The trip began at first dawn light -
     Sonoma field of sparkling green,
Fabric of purple, red (so bright!),
     Yellow, blue - all could be seen
Spread on the grass prepared for flight.
     Two huge ballons!! Four kids between.

The Indian, John and Mister B.
     Would guide the crafts into the sky.
They'd drift past fields - so much to see.
     Josh, Owen, Kenz, and Fried would fly
In hanging baskets, far and free.
     Hot-air balloons could go so high.

But something happened at the start!
     Josh and McKenzie, quite alone
Had lifted off!  They were apart!
     Their ropes now trailed, their height had grown.
The crowd appalled, had pounding heart.
     "They'll crash..." their dad was heard to moan.

But Pomo Indian pilot, John,
     In his ballon began pursuit.
Though Fried and O were also on
     His craft with him, he was astute
And knew that dangers all were gone:
     He knew his ship! He knew the route!

(to be continued)

WOW!

Starquakes

Magellanic Cloud

     For someone interested in the natural world, reading about cosmic events can be exciting.  For example, back on March 5, 1979 and 170,000 light years away in the large Magellanic Cloud (a distant galaxy) a neutron star in the remnant of a supernova explosion sent out a 2/10th second burst of hard gamma rays.  The energy in that burst exceeded the total energy output by our own sun in many, many years.  It was a magnetic starquake on a so-called magnetar.  Even reading about it elicited a "Wow!" from me.

   
  But my own personal excitement about a cosmic event occurred on July 11, 1991.   We had gone to the Big Island in Hawaii to see a total eclipse of the sun.  The clouds were teasing us, threatening to obscure the sun during the four minutes of totality.  We actually raced with our car, as the time approached, trying to line up a hole in the clouds with the fast disappearing disk of the sun.  We were successful and the world darkened. The shadow of the moon swept toward us across the ocean.  The last rim of brilliance was extinguished and we stared skyward. There was the milky, opalescent corona flaring out in an irregular circle.   How amazing that the sizes and distances of sun and moon create this almost exact blocking phenomenon!  Then we saw something else, unexpected.  At the edge of the dark moon's outline were two red solar flares arcing millions of miles into space beyond the sun's surface.   A magnetic storm was sending hot gases flaring out and then gathering them back in.  I wasn't prepared to see the flares and of course, I could not detect the UV, the protons, the electrons which they shot off into space, but what a thrill to see those red arcs!  The power and the glory!  This I saw with my own eyes on my own star!  Our own "starquake" was a very personal "Wow!"

March 3, 2003

Dear Rosalie and Irv

                                    QUESTION ANSWERED??

            What dandelion heads remain
            Are bowed,
            Because the Kays have left.

            So loud
            The weeping of bereft
            But open flowers!

            Why do they close at night?
            Not just from sorrow,

            But because tomorrow and tomorrow
            They must obey
            Commands genetic that clearly say
            Activate proteins 210 and 180 kDa*

protein 210 kDa

            

            To plump the pulvini up
            With turgidity high
            And implement nyctinasty.
            By the dawn's early light
            Circadian rhythm is invoked
            And petals spread when wings take flight
            To gather pollens.

            So, from their southern clime,
            The Kays send thanks to Winesuffs
            Along with a botanical rhyme.

            The Answer?
             Nyctinasty happens!
 

Nyctinasty Happens

 
            * Underlined phrases may be accessed on the Web.

July 23, 2012

Better to rhyme than to whine!

                        CONVENTIONAL LIMERICKS

         

Democratic

Joe’s loyal-- times one and a half.

His speech does him proud (plus his staff).

            He toes party line,

            Does exceedingly fine.

And he does it without any gaffe.

Barack shows us a better path

With the biblical phrase that he hath.

            Middle class to the fore!

            Let the rich give some more.

Like Clinton we’ll just do the math.  

    

Republican

Clint Eastwood’s an elderly actor,

Whom “The Right” thought a positive factor,

            But he cursed to a chair—

            He was so “not-quite-there”--

That he ruined their set like a tractor.

Paul Ryan is handsome: with youth,

Slick black hair and a smile full of tooth;

            But he plays with the facts

            Of who’ll raise the tax.

“Undecideds” will ask “where’s the truth?”

Sept. 7, 2012

When winged thoughts take flight....

Lorel Kay, Mercury (for Owen, cross country runner)

@MASS MoCA: Owen, Mary w/ Sol Lewitt

Birches, New Lebanon Shaker Village

Xu Bing, Phoenix

Xu Bing, Phoenix

Xu Bing, Phoenix

When autumn leaves start to fall

 For Eva Cassidy's Interpretation of Autumn Leaves - click here

A sense of place...

Heidelberg

This topaz city,

Crystallized from green eddys

Of Neckar and forest,

Has sung songs

Not in "The Student Prince"

To two men of my house.

Step-sliding lullabys

And night drummings

Of terror to one;

Minor-keyed love lieder

And dissonant flute melancholies

To the next.

Die Hauptstrasse

Is torn up now

By Jackhammers

and great ditchdiggers,

Its rusty pipes

On the surgeon's slab

Like clogged veins

Of an old man

Who was not always kind

To his children.

Another Sense

Pain is the Other Sense.
The nerves for pain
Are everywhere,
Running brainward
Just as visual and auditory 
Neurons do.
Just as the nose and tongue
Sample and send
And the skin reads touch messages,
So the pain nerve ends
Send alarms--
Always alarms--
From inside and out.
"Help!   Get help!" they signal.

       No More War

        The usual five
        Paint the world for us:
        Fluttery colors
        And bursts of vivid light;
        Purple sounds
        And feathery wind caresses;
        Sweet perfumes
        That tempt our appetite.
        They show a knowable world
        Out beyond us.


But pain!
Knowing pain goes beyond
Self-preservation.
Only by embracing pain
Can we feel the hurt
Of the cowering child in the corner.
Only through our own pain
Is empathy
For the crooked man
Nourished.
Only with personal pain
Do we bond with the dying
And know our fate.

April 18, 2003