Poetry Sunday: The False Friends by Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker was a twentieth century American writer of poetry, fiction and literary criticism who was especially known for her caustic wit. There's an example of that wit in this poem. I imagine the subject of the poem as a teenager but it could be an older person, I suppose. At any rate, it is someone who mended from an ended romance rather quickly!

 

The False Friends

by Dorothy Parker

They laid their hands upon my head,

They stroked my cheek and brow;

And time could heal a hurt, they said,
And time could dim a vow.

And they were pitiful and mild
Who whispered to me then,
"The heart that breaks in April, child,
Will mend in May again."

Oh, many a mended heart they knew.
So old they were, and wise.
And little did they have to do
To come to me with lies!

Who flings me silly talk of May
Shall meet a bitter soul;
For June was nearly spent away
Before my heart was whole.

This week in birds - #681

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment: 

This is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week doing what he is known for - skimming. It is the well-named Black Skimmer, a bird found in both North and South America in ocean or freshwater habitats. Its conservation status is of least concern presently although its population trends are unknown.

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There's been no tropical storm threat to the Americas so far but there are some Pacific weather systems currently being tracked that pose a potential threat if they develop. 

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The current administration sees no value in maintaining an ocean monitoring system and has ordered it to be dismantled.

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The nation is a tinderbox, literally, and this wildfire season is worrying wildfire experts.

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As if we didn't have enough to be worried about, flesh-eating screwworms have been detected in the United States 60 years after they were considered to be eradicated here.

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Pigeons are famously able to find their way home when released long distances away from it, but how do they do that? Does it have something to do with their liver?  

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One could argue that California and Florida already have more than enough mosquitoes so why would we want to introduce more?

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Paleontologists have discovered an ancient sea reptile the size of a school bus that they are calling the T. rex of the sea, Tylosaurus rex.

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Researchers are studying how the engineering choices in the building of the Great Pyramid have helped it survive for 4600 years.

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Did an ancient ancestor of humans navigate the world on all fours?

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There is an outbreak of Ebola in Congo and Uganda. Scientists are hoping that some experimental treatments and vaccines might be able to slow its spread.

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The Okefenokee, a blackwater swamp and Georgia wildlife haven, is under consideration for UNESCO World Heritage status.

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Mangrove forests fight climate change but sea level rise is a threat to their continued existence.

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A rare Przewalski’s horse has been born at the Bronx Zoo much to the delight of conservationists. These horses were declared extinct in the wild in the 1960s.

Poetry Sunday: "The world is a beautiful place" by Lawrence Ferlinghhetti

And now for something completely different from the poems I generally post here. A bit of satire by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

"The world is a beautiful place" 

 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti 

The world is a beautiful place

                                                           to be born into 
if you don’t mind happiness 
                                             not always being 
                                                                        so very much fun 
       if you don’t mind a touch of hell
                                                       now and then
                just when everything is fine
                                                             because even in heaven
                                they don’t sing 
                                                        all the time

             The world is a beautiful place
                                                           to be born into
       if you don’t mind some people dying
                                                                  all the time
                        or maybe only starving
                                                           some of the time
                 which isn’t half so bad
                                                      if it isn’t you

      Oh the world is a beautiful place
                                                          to be born into
               if you don’t much mind
                                                   a few dead minds
                    in the higher places
                                                    or a bomb or two
                            now and then
                                                  in your upturned faces
         or such other improprieties
                                                    as our Name Brand society
                                  is prey to
                                              with its men of distinction
             and its men of extinction
                                                   and its priests
                         and other patrolmen
                                                         and its various segregations
         and congressional investigations
                                                             and other constipations
                        that our fool flesh
                                                     is heir to

Yes the world is the best place of all
                                                           for a lot of such things as
         making the fun scene
                                                and making the love scene
and making the sad scene
                                         and singing low songs of having 
                                                                                      inspirations
and walking around 
                                looking at everything
                                                                  and smelling flowers
and goosing statues
                              and even thinking 
                                                         and kissing people and
     making babies and wearing pants
                                                         and waving hats and
                                     dancing
                                                and going swimming in rivers
                              on picnics
                                       in the middle of the summer
and just generally
                            ‘living it up’

Yes
   but then right in the middle of it
                                                    comes the smiling
                                                                                 mortician

This week in birds - #680

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment: 

The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is the lively little Nashville Warbler, a bird of the forest and of urban and suburban habitats. It breeds in parts of southeastern and western Canada and northeastern and western United States and can be found during migration throughout most of the United States. Its population is decreasing but its current conservation status is not of concern. 

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The Monarch butterfly spring migration has now reached as far as Maine and Nova Scotia.

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Has the risk of global warming been overstated? Scientists are reconsidering.

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Did you ever wonder why many of the huge predatory dinosaurs had such tiny arms? Scientists think they have figured it out. 

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And which one of those predatory dinosaurs was the biggest?

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If you have an orange cat, it is probably a male. Here's why.

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Cities might be thought to be inimical to birds but they can actually prove quite important as stopovers during migration.

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Here are some amazing pictures of giraffes in the wild.

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A new study suggests that daddy longlegs actively hunt frogs in South America.

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How long have humans had a relationship with pigeons? Much longer than previously thought it turns out.

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Here are some of the best wildlife photographs from previous years.

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A centuries-old baobab tree in Madagascar is dying. It is a symbol of something larger.

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Gray whales in the eastern North Pacific are suffering from malnourishment. They are in serious trouble.

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After years of a dwindling population in the Chesapeake Bay, blue crabs saw a dramatic boost in their numbers last winter.

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Sunday night will feature the second full moon of the month, known as a blue moon.

Poetry Sunday: In Perpetual Spring by Amy Gerstler

In my search for a poem to feature this week, I came across this one by a poet I'd never heard of. I still know very little about her but I know I like her poem, especially this last section:

Even the prick of the thistle,   

queen of the weeds, revives   

your secret belief

in perpetual spring,

your faith that for every hurt   

there is a leaf to cure it.

I find that I do indeed believe in perpetual spring, hopeless optimist that I am, and that I have faith that for every hurt there is a leaf to cure it. Enjoy the poem and tell me what you think.

In Perpetual Spring

by Amy Gerstler

Gardens are also good places
to sulk. You pass beds of

spiky voodoo lilies   

and trip over the roots   

of a sweet gum tree,   

in search of medieval   

plants whose leaves,   

when they drop off   

turn into birds

if they fall on land,

and colored carp if they   

plop into water.

 

Suddenly the archetypal   

human desire for peace   

with every other species   

wells up in you. The lion   

and the lamb cuddling up.

The snake and the snail, kissing.

Even the prick of the thistle,   

queen of the weeds, revives   

your secret belief

in perpetual spring,

your faith that for every hurt   

there is a leaf to cure it.

This week in birds - #679

 A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment: 

The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is the Red-naped Sapsucker, a bird of the forest that, true to its name, relies upon sap as its staple food source. It prefers deciduous or mixed deciduous-coniferous forests, especially areas with aspen groves or riparian habitat with thin-barked deciduous trees. Its population is increasing in these areas and its conservation status is of least concern at present. This is a bird of North America and can be found in parts of western Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

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The administration in Washington continues to take a wrecking ball to government services. This week it hit the Preventive Services Task Force, firing two of its members.

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Do you drink bottled water? The plastic bottle may pose a hazard to your health.

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Warblers are some of the most beautiful and colorful birds that we have in North America. Here are some hints about how to attract them to your yard.

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And here are the fifty warbler species that you could potentially see/attract. 

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A powerful El Niño appears to be forming in the Pacific. Its effect could be devastating.

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The saga of Timmy, the humpbacked whale that had gotten stranded off the German coast, had a sad ending.

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The Great Pyramid of Giza has stood for 4,600 years, a testament to the skill of ancient Egyptian architects and engineers.

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Africa is slowly breaking a part. The rift in East Africa may cause that section to break off from the continent sooner than had previously been thought.

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The war on Iran has placed the world's most endangered big cat, the Asiatic cheetah, in peril.

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Portland, Oregon, a forward-thinking city, has embraced solar power as a way to reduce emissions and lower energy bills.

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Whooping Cranes are simply amazing birds. If you have a chance to see them in the wild, take it! Here are eight interesting facts about them. 

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Researchers have found that beluga whales are able to recognize themselves in mirrors.

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A 2,000-year-old mummy has been found with a papyrus fragment of the Homeric epic, The Iliad, sealed in a clay packet outside its wrappings.

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A gray wolf has been sighted in Sequoia National Park in California for the first time in over a hundred years, more evidence that California's growing wolf population is expanding into new territory.

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The Environmental Protection Agency (which seems to have abandoned the "protection" part of its name) is planning to rescind drinking water standards for four of the "forever chemicals". 

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Here's the Weather Channel's outlook for summer temperatures in the United States and, no surprise, it looks like my part of the world may be hotter than usual.

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And in more news from where I live, this summer solar power will be overtaking coal on the Texas power grid. Might as well take advantage of all that sunlight!

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Poetry Sunday: Ode, Composed on a May Morning by William Wordsworth

"All Nature welcomes Her whose sway
Tempers the year's extremes"

It seems a good description of May. It is certainly the month that tempers the year's extremes here for June begins our long, hot summer that lasts through September and sometimes even into October. So let's enjoy this pleasant month while we can. 

Ode, Composed on a May Morning

by William Wordsworth

While from the purpling east departs

The star that led the dawn,

Blithe Flora from her couch upstarts,
For May is on the lawn.
A quickening hope, a freshening glee,
Foreran the expected Power,
Whose first-drawn breath, from bush and tree,
Shakes off that pearly shower.

All Nature welcomes Her whose sway
Tempers the year's extremes;
Who scattereth lustres o'er noon-day,
Like morning's dewy gleams;
While mellow warble, sprightly trill,
The tremulous heart excite;
And hums the balmy air to still
The balance of delight.

Time was, blest Power! when youth and maids
At peep of dawn would rise,
And wander forth, in forest glades
Thy birth to solemnize.
Though mute the song---to grace the rite
Untouched the hawthorn bough,
Thy Spirit triumphs o'er the slight;
Man changes, but not Thou!

Thy feathered Lieges bill and wings
In love's disport employ;
Warmed by thy influence, creeping things
Awake to silent joy:
Queen art thou still for each gay plant
Where the slim wild deer roves;
And served in depths where fishes haunt
Their own mysterious groves.

Cloud-piercing peak, and trackless heath,
Instinctive homage pay;
Nor wants the dim-lit cave a wreath
To honor thee, sweet May!
Where cities fanned by thy brisk airs
Behold a smokeless sky,
Their puniest flower-pot-nursling dares
To open a bright eye.

And if, on this thy natal morn,
The pole, from which thy name
Hath not departed, stands forlorn
Of song and dance and game;
Still from the village-green a vow
Aspires to thee addrest,
Wherever peace is on the brow,
Or love within the breast.

Yes! where Love nestles thou canst teach
The soul to love the more;
Hearts also shall thy lessons reach
That never loved before.
Stript is the haughty one of pride,
The bashful freed from fear,
While rising, like the ocean-tide,
In flow the joyous year.

Hush, feeble lyre! weak words refuse
The service to prolong!
To yon exulting thrush the Muse
Entrusts the imperfect song;
His voice shall chant, in accents clear,
Throughout the live-long day,
Till the first silver star appear,
The sovereignty of May.