to the struggling and striving...

From former student Nat Sy...timely in these times of vicious confusions...  22.1.15

This is an appeal to the struggling and striving stakeholders of this planet:
This floating rock we call Earth

Alas, that means you


That means:
Everyone of your acquaintance
Every figure your eyes skim past in the street
Every charlatan still to defeat
Every tender face you find solace in
Now mimic the mindset William Wallace was in

Dismount - disembark - descend from your existance
Slacken your angst and decant your hate
'Cos in the long run they're about as useful
As pouring acid onto your dinner plate

To muzzled masses that lead lives of deafening desperation:
With Excalibur aloft King Arthur earned the throne
But it's our minds we got to wrench out of the stone

Don't be fooled by its simplicity
There was never a broadcat made of such urgency
'Cos at no time before us
Did we grasp the scope of this emergency?

Ladle out love and logic by the boatload
Equipped with that cargo you can take any road
Now grab life; seize time
This fight is for human kind

The Me Bird

The Me Bird from 18bis on Vimeo.

Pablo Neruda's poem, "The Me Bird," is the Chilean writer's ode to a "bird of a single feather."

Brazilian design and graphics studio 18bis created a stunning layered animation that brings the short work to life.

Seek out Pablo Neruda's poem if you wish, but try to create a song or poem of your own inspired by the sequence of ideas you see flowing before you in this video.

 

News Alert! World Peace Day Today!

News Alert! ~ World Peace Day Today!
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Opinion Piece #10~

From the United Nations website:
Finland: “ENO Treeplanting Day in Joensuu, Finland” http://www.enotreeday.net/ - ENO Tree Planting Day is a global tree planting event for children, youth and NGO's. Trees are planted for peace in over 130 countries on 21 September.
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Write an opinion piece as a poem.
Some suggestions for ideas:
1. Is world peace attainable? How?
2. What does peace mean to you personally?
3. Is there a place for conflict? What kind? Does it stir the creative spirit?~

Beyond the Box #1 ~ Mummies

Pic by G.W. aka P.A. ~ My Egyptian cat ornament
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Beyond the Box #1 ~ Mummies~
Archaeology Daily News has reported that:
Mummifying animals was a common practice among ancient Egyptians, who embalmed thousands of crocodiles and buried them in mass graves as offerings to the crocodile god Sobek, according to the museum.~
Imagine that you are to choose a particular animal for mummification.
1. What animal would it be?
2. Why would you choose it?

Write your response as a
short story OR
poem OR
feature article for a newspaper
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History Waves #1 ~ The Ghost and the Darkness

This film is based on a true story.
In 1896 Irishman Lt. Col. John Paterson, a construction engineer from the British Army, was sent to East Africa to build a railway trestle bridge across the Tsavo River (in today's Kenya) for the British East African Railway. (This would help to expand the empire a little more.) During the construction of the bridge, two lions would enter the workers' camp to kill. The locals name them 'The Ghost' and 'The Darkness'. It is believed that from 35 to 130 people were killed by the two lions in nine months. The claims are varied.
NOTE:
1. Lt. Col. Patterson owned the skins and skulls of the two Tsavo man-eaters. In 1924, Patterson sold them to the Field Museum in Chicago for $5,000.
2. The title of the book is 'The Man-Eaters of Tsavo', and is one of two books Colonel Patterson wrote. The second book, 'In the Grip of the Nyika: Further Adventures in British East Africa' was published in 1909. The latter never became very popular, and is long out of print.
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Mix writing styles* A little history and song lyrics?
* Poem and a letter?~