Tag Archives: man’s place in nature

It Can’t Go On Without Us!!!!

10 Replies



It Can’t Go On Without Us!!!!

Moss will not grow on a stone if someone’s there to spin it.
The genipapo needs a hand to squeeze the ink within it.

No finish line is ever crossed in one proverbial minute
without those legs that join the race and set a goal to win it.

No job has ever botched itself unless a human blows it.
Knowledge is not knowledge until somebody knows it.

A car without a human foot can’t pick up any speed.
What good are pears or apples without a mouth to feed?

No tail’s pinned on a donkey without a hand to pin it.
What transgression could exist without a man to sin it?

Even guilt would not exist without human compunction.
In short, the Earth’s in need of us to fulfill every function.

The Gods must be mistaken when they censure us and cuss us.
In truth, we make the world go ’round. Where would it be without us?

Prompts today are moss, minute, genipapo, botch and speed.

Poem inspired by the film “Don’t Look Up.”  Too, too close in its depiction of our present day world.

Your Own Backyard

23 Replies

Click on photos to enlarge and view as slideshow.

Both of the flowers that were emerging 24 hours ago have matured into their full glory and now shriveled up and fallen off the bush.
The agave from my garden has accepted its new place and decided to bloom and the palm tree whose leaves were cropped off by marauding cows before the fence went up, has put out new branches.
I found this perfect little succulent “flower” lying on the brick sidewalk
This is my present view of the lot from my studio.
and sneezes.

Stasis and Flux

Laughter is the flux of life, aiding in the flow
as we face gloomy prospects everywhere we go.
Better just to stay at home and enjoy what we’re given
It does no good to cry about the way our life’s been riven
into “then” and “now.” Whereas the world was once a race,
now we walk on tiptoe, remaining in our place,
observing what is close at hand—the blessings that surround us—
looking for the beauty in the space that lies around us.
Flowers, birds and family. Sunset skies, the trees.
Life may end where it began, here with the birds and bees.

The whole world is a miracle, and we are just a part of it.
Remember, there was no mankind way back at the start of it.
If we pass to oblivion and all our buildings crumble,
nature will go on again, our history just a mumble
that beings of the future will stumble on and wonder
why we chose to pillage and why we chose to plunder
when we could have just sat back to wonder at this world
where everything we ever needed lay securely curled.
Breathe her air, enjoy her fruits, enjoy simple things.
Open your eyes and ears and heart to all that nature brings.

Prompts for today are tiptoe, given, gloomy and flux.

Alfresco

15 Replies

Click on photos to enlarge.


Alfresco

This gentle little zephyr does not make a din.
We hardly know that it’s a breezy day that we are in!
We step so lightly over the smooth and green terrain
that we barely notice that it’s begun to rain.

Our bedroom’s warm and cozy. I suppose we should go home,
but nature’s made a softer bed in grass spread over loam.
You once called me nature’s child, and today it’s true.
The whole world is a comfy nest when I am with you.

The grass provides a mattress, the trees spread overhead
form a perfect canopy for our alfresco bed.
It is a perfect ending to our day of roaming
to wait here for the evening star, together in the gloaming.

Word prompts for today are din, zephyr, terrain, suppose, and bedroom.

With Science

15 Replies

IMG_8806

con·science:  Origin Middle English (also in the sense ‘inner thoughts or knowledge’): via Old French from Latin conscientia, from conscient- ‘being privy to’, from the verb conscire, from con- ‘with’ + scire ‘know’.

With Science

This word conscience–that pull from deep within us to do what’s right for the world? If we look at the original meaning of the root word “con,” it means  “with science or knowledge.”  And if science is the study of the natural world, then look to nature to understand yourself. Be cognizant of the fact that we are interdependent. Begin to hear the echoes of your own well-being in the state of nature. It uses what ammunition it can to bring its truths to our notice: flood, fire, more violent hurricanes, a rise in temperature, Coronavirus.

As much as we search for truth in the laboratory, it is in the wilderness that we find our answers. We cannot create anything except from the materials of nature, for that is all there is. We are a part of it, not its end. In choosing to blithely destroy the patterns of nature, we destroy ourselves.

Prompt words for today are wilderness, cognizant, begin, conscience and echoes.

Like a Circle in a Spiral

10 Replies

The Ragtag prompt today is “Like a Circle in a Spiral.” I think that one requires its own post—this time a photo post. I bought this round spiral tile at an antique store nineteen years ago and had it installed over the door of my studio when I had it built a few years later. It is the reverse of the prompt, actually—a spiral in a circle. It has always reminded me of the Pueblo symbol that played a central part in one of my favorite books, The Man Who Killed the Deer by Frank Waters. “A circle enclosing a dot” which was the symbol for man’s place within the tribe and the tribe’s place within nature. Those similar symbols—a spiral and a circle surrounding a dot show up elsewhere in the decorations of my house. In a poem written by Isidro in response to a piece of mine entitled “In Mexico there is always music,” in the symbols painted on the Purapetchan bowl and in the mural painted by Isidro eighteen years ago, as well as a poem painted on the wall outside the entrance to my bedroom. Some of those symbols remind me of an illustration I saw years ago of droplets exactly like some of these images falling as a spiritual blessing from the skies. I always thought they were labelled as “yod” which is a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, but I can find no mention of yod having this significance, although the letter is similarly shaped. At any rate, I love these shapes that seem to show up time and again in different cultures and religions and how often they signify the same thing–spirituality, man’s place in nature, the cycle of nature, life.

Click on photos to enlarge.

Bowl