Category Archives: History

Luthier

15 Saturday May 2021

Posted by in Environment, History, Music, Nature, Poetry

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Val di Fiemme Photo from Wikipedia

btristan Predazzo (TN) 5 Sept, 2009.

L’abete di risnanza gives you wood

from the Val di Fiemme, the Magnifica Sorella.

In that forest of harmony is Spruce,

cradled by Pale di San Martino;

warmed in turn by Alpenglow and then chilled.

Prolonged, reduced solar activity

narrows its rings; matches them to your wrinkles.

Your belly has developed fine grain lines;

your voice has a sylvan modulation.

You haunt Il Bosco Che Suona,

a seasoned genius, skilled in selection.

Work is a divertimento for you.

The gibbous moon is your precise signal

to select the slow-maturing timber

to be quarter-sawn; air-dried in your shop.

The vibrating air, combined with your breath,

creates singing sap, needles, resin,

responsive, like an Aeolian harp

and the terroir gives you vine ash for your reds,

which stain your hands, transforming you to live tree,

bridging the gap between man, instrument,

climate, topography, dendrology.

When your master craftsman fingers relax

and your touch becomes lighter and lighter

and Fortune fells you just where you have stood,

for aeons, those in your shadow will grow,

more vigorously for having known you

and your arcane method of fusing strength

with Mother Nature’s flexibility.

They will internalise resonances

from tonewoods subject to your discipline.

Autorotation will spread all your skills.

Though, in the beginning was Man and Tree

and an inhospitable mountain range,

now Nature has been given her own voice.

Ultimate Neighbour Feud

24 Saturday Apr 2021

Posted by in Animals, History, Humour, Poetry, Social Comment, Writing

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File:Hipopótamo (Hippopotamus amphibius), parque nacional de Chobe, Botsuana, 2018-07-28, DD 60.jpg
Photo by Diego Delso

Extreme revanchism row with neighbours:

no statutory nuisance laws back then;

no one issued an abatement notice.

He was ‘the Brave’ – at war with the Hyksos.

It’s amazing what lack of sleep can do.

They just snapped over his noisy hippos.

A desire to cull turned to lust to kill.

We’ve all been maddened by a noisy pool.

The disturbance carried on the night air,

travelling from Thebes, up to Avaris.

Then his younger son captured their city,

almost twenty years into his own reign.

A little bit of poolside decorum

may have prevented an execution.

Users of swimming pools should roar quietly,

to avoid the fate of Seqenenre.

Inglesham Church, Oxfordshire

23 Friday Apr 2021

Posted by in Architecture, Crime, Environment, History, Nostalgia, Photography, Social Comment

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The unspoilt church William Morris was inspired by when he founded the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments. A gem, sadly attacked by heartless lead thieves a couple of years ago.

Photo by Candia Dixon-Stuart. All Rights Reserved.