WICKED

Photo by Martin Kahn

(In honor of All Hallows’ Eve and those spirits who are still with us)

WICKED

A wicked gale, 1841,

Took all souls, both old and young.

Among the shipwrecks off the Cape,

No sadder story leaves mouths agape.

Seven ships were swept like splintered trees as

Sailors fought the rising seas.

Fifty-seven lads left that cursed day,

From Truro Harbor through Cape Cod Bay.

With farewells to families and prayers of thanks,

To fish for cod along George’s Banks.

Headed nor ‘east at full sail,

The hopefuls met that dreaded gale.

Soundings dropped as winds blew wild,

And fear spread from man to child.

For closer their vessels approached the shoals,

Which cut their hulls with ripping rolls,

Nature took victims without remorse,

And most were lost who’d set the course.

Legend has it that on autumn nights,

Amidst Truro’s moors, below the heights,

Ghosts of sailors mourn their ghastly plight,

With frightful wails across the night.

So if you dare to brace that wicked wind,

You may hear cries of those doomed kin,

Brothers of the sea who dared to go,

Where others still venture and fight the foe.

NOTE: This poem is based in part on real events off Truro, MA in 1841 (Source: Provincetown Banner, June 28, 2009). The legend is fiction. Originally posted 10/15/13 Poetree Creations.

LIKE THE ABOVE? GO TO: www.shadowwater.net and discover original adventures,  Shadowwater & Dark Sea (Shadowwater II).

NO ONE IS IMMUNE: THE ART OF IMAGERY

As a child, reading challenged me. Few stories captured my heart and my mind as James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans. I know now that the visual interpretations crafted by N.C. Wyeth for the hardcover book  brought me into the epic (Alas, my copy disappeared). Debate continues as to whether Wyeth's work, and others such as Norman Rockwell's, is considered "art."

Being an active Tweeter, in a circuitous way another Tweeter asked me to compare Andy Warhol to John Singer Sargent (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has a large collection of Sargent's paintings). The conversation led to a consensual conclusion that Andy Warhol changed the boundaries of "What is art?" in the sixties and seventies. Not to disparage Warhol's contributions, if his silk screens are now accepted as modern art, why do current art historians question N.C. Wyeth's distinctive, classic illustrations?

When the satirical magazine Charles Hebdo hit the news, I remembered my brother's copies of MAD Magazine and how much the visual artistry of the cartoonists stayed with me far beyond the captions. Maybe as a visual learner, pictures impressed me more than words. The humorous and sardonic imagery made an impact.

N.C. Wyeth's illustrations had the same effect. Look at the cover he did for The Last of the Mohicans: Chingachgook, father of Uncas, is featured.  Heartbreaking as I remember (SPOILER ALERT) Uncas’ death, as the fictional death of  a bloodline, a tribe, and the eventual demise of a people.

When illustrators’ work reaches into the soul of many, I argue we must put subjective tastes aside. Many will agree that art IS subjective but the cover above reaches beyond the individual. And if a drawing, painting, photograph; an illustration or even street art awakens our numbed senses, deadened by over-stimulation via technology, then the work should be elevated to the status of art. Any hand-made, hand-captured image which makes a community stop and think has more value than any masterpiece hanging in a museum. Awakening the sleeping public is priceless.

It’s been often said that great writers paint pictures with their words. Powerful speakers do the same. For in the end, visual imagery which underscores historical, contemporary and personal events lingers in our consciousness.

WATERCOLOR SEA

(Copyright 2012 Wendy Shreve)

Teal, aqua, sky blue,

Seafoam, emerald, wisteria green,

Tawny, sienna, chocolate brown,

Mauve, lavender, lilac purple;

Intermixing as colors in nature do,

Sparkling with sunlight and misty hues;

Raging, dark, infinite depths,

Sometimes shallow, polluted; imposing deaths;

Watching myriad-colored fish amid tidal pools in the sea,

Water reflects eternal wisdom: all colors are equal; all living things are free.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (Originally published 2013)

PLEASE GO TO: www.shadowwater.net for more information on my books, SHADOWWATER & DARK SEA.

MARS & WATER: Edgar Rice Burroughs and Percival Lowell

If you're anticipating a blog about Tarzan of the Apes, you'll have to look elsewhere. This commentary will explore the once popular serial by Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars (titled in the 2012 movie John Carter) the first book in Burroughs' Barsoom Series. Why is the popular American author and his fiction relevant? Because Burroughs' associates, scientists of his time, predicted that Mars has water.

A Princess of Mars, set in the 1870s, depicts the red planet dying after once being covered by oceans. The remaining water has receded and disappeared to a point where rival societies fight over water rights. And, an American, John Carter, is accidentally transported to Mars to become a respected hero in this strange, new world. (Wikipedia)

Burroughs learned that lauded astronomer Percival Lowell, discoverer of Pluto, believed that Mars had once been alive with living organisms millions of years ago and had become a dying planet with only water remaining at the polar ice caps. Lowell wrote Mars in 1895. Edgar Rice Burroughs read the publication but didn't directly borrow the scientist's detailed theories, though the author did adopt Lowell's basic premises.

If you skipped Disney's John Carter, I recommend going back and watching it or reading Burroughs' A Princess of Mars (the first book in the Barsoom Series). You will be astonished at Burroughs's depiction of a place not unlike our southwest--where the story begins--and what Mars could have been, fantasy elements aside, in its ability to sustain life.

To conclude, the recent discovery of "water" on Mars by NASA scientists could be the keystone to unlocking secrets long hidden by the cold red soil of a planet once considered dead by real-life scientists but never by Percival Lowell or his sci-fi interpreter Edgar Rice Burroughs.

WHAT'S ALL THE FUSS ABOUT? CLIMATE CHANGE REVISTED

(Wrote this draft January 1, 2015)

Went to a discussion three weeks ago on climate change, a follow-up to a sermon given by a minister that day at a local church. I participated because I walked in the People's Climate March in New York City. The speaker commented that climate change encompassed all the world's problems but didn't elaborate on that grandiose statement. Eventually, a woman, ninety years old with lots of moxie, asked how could it be that climate change is tied to all the world's problems? He replied with brief examples--he had to leave for another commitment--including hotter climates producing hotter tempers, devastating floods, and so on. However, the woman's question has resonated since that discussion.

CRYSTAL LAKE
(During drought, Summer 2013)

Informed, long-term followers know two critical points: that scientists have warned of climate change long before our current crisis. And, science fiction predicted scientific fact (a topic I mentioned in an earlier blog). What weakens the controversy is how, like an extended outline for a research paper, the subheadings, i.e. direct and indirect effects of climate change have been overlooked. To simply my premise, I will list these consequences, in random order, and then provide my observations about some of these current/future effects.

1.     Housing

2.     Jobs

3.     Income

4.     Health

5.     Discrimination

6.     Poverty

7.     Global conflict/International relations

8.     Displaced refugees

9.     Censorship

10. Security

Of course, the above represent a short list of the immediate challenges our changing weather patterns have produced, will produce. Moreover, each could be a topic for a scholar's dissertation. To address these challenges with an academic's eyes, however, would be for naught. Most politicians have ignored scientists' warnings for years, and scientific data goes over their heads. And, for anyone in our global community who works just to survive, the list above means little until we look at real world, concrete examples that will forever change their lives.

Think about this: the population of the Maldives (an island group, south-west of India in the Indian Ocean) is @345,000 people. Within our lifetime, their lifetimes the islands will be swept away by rising seas. Where will they re-locate? How will these refugees be sheltered, fed, given opportunities for work?

Americans know from Super Storm Sandy that thousands lost their homes in New Jersey, Staten Island and elsewhere. The cost to rebuild skyrocketed as some businesses saw their chance to capitalize on the disaster. Flood insurance rose significantly not only there, but along the eastern seaboard. Many first homeowners who've lived their lives and worked their trade along the coastline will be unable to return.

Already illnesses related to increasing temperatures will only worsen as pollutants percolate in the already thickening smog from local industries. Nuclear plant run-off, depleting or threatened aquifers, and agricultural run-off will threaten water supplies. Steep increases in respiratory-related illnesses, such as asthma, allergies, chronic diseases, as with Lyme, have and will continue to rise.

Yes, these examples have been highlighted; nevertheless, Congress, the media, the power elite refuse to see the now short-term dangers of ignoring climate change. In fact, Congress just agreed to slash the EPA's budget when the agency had finally begun to make strides to reduce carbon emissions and other pollutants.

Climate change must be a major issue in upcoming presidential platforms. Let’s all contribute our voices to insuring politicos hear the call and continue to act on preserving our planet for generations to come.