Every night at about this time I wish I was a thousand miles away
From here
To the place where the river started, where the river started
To appear

And mind seems to evaporate in this jungle of burning thoughts
And time seems to evaporate in this jungle of burning thoughts
And hope, does hope evaporate? Well, I’m hoping against hope it’s not
The river that evaporates when its’ sources together are not

Walking down to the banks of the river my eyes can only
See so deep
But I’m on this river now and there’s something about it
I want to keep

And mind seems to evaporate in this jungle of burning thoughts
And time seems to evaporate in this jungle of burning thoughts
And hope, does hope evaporate? Well, I’m hoping against hope it’s not
The river that evaporates when its’ sources together are not

The path this river takes, it may be crooked it may be straight
The path this river takes, it may be shaped it may be fate
The path this river takes will bend trees and bury slate, but will
The path this river takes every join with that great lake

The path this river takes
The path this river takes
The path this river takes
The path this river takes

The quickest strike
The clearest sight

You can’t contain me in rock
You can’t contain me in glass
You can’t contain me in light
You can’t contain me in thought

Description

The mantis shrimp serves as a limit to our understanding about the world. To think about the mantis shrimp is to recognize that our expectations are always exceeded by what we find. Thinking about the world is an exercise in expanding our imaginations not containing the world. The mantis shrimp, in its ability to destroy aquaria and damage rock, is already showing us this.

Science

There is a good comic of the mantis shrimp at The Oatmeal

Science New for Kids has a great article.

Media

I will build a world for you and in it all you’ll find are good things, good things and true.
I will listen for the sound of the rushing water and begin, begin to chew
I will build it strong and sturdy and it will be the home for my kit, my kit and you
And in the pools that surround it all creatures will gather good things, good things and true

See all the good that’s all around you everywhere
See, you can even see it from space
See all the good that’s all around you falling
See all the good it’s everywhere

I will build a world for you and in it all you’ll find are good things, good things and true.
I will build a world for you to play in and find good work, good work that you can do
Anytime you need a home to live in we are here to invite, to invite you
I will build it all around you, I will forever change the landscape with good things, good things and true.

Description

Beavers, although highly territorial in relation to other beavers, can be very hospitable, even inclusive to other creatures. Muskrats will sometimes make a home in beaver lodges, and generally the areas around beaver dams support creature species diversity and fecundity than other species. This is a lesson in at least two ways. One, humans are not the only creatures to dramatically effect our environment. A large beaver dam in Alberta can be seen from space. Two, beavers change their environment for the better, increasing ecological flourishing.

Science

An article on some of the questions concerning biodiversity.

Animal Diversity Web Page.

Discover article on the Large Beaver Dam in Alberta

Bestiary

The Medieval Bestiary

Media

Let others pray for the brown pelican
the blue crab, the heron, the cajun:
everyone must specialize

I will confine myself to a meditation
upon the sea turtles
withering finally on a remote island.

I concentrate in subway stations,
in parks, I can’t quite see them,
they move to the peripheries of my eyes

but on the last day they will be there;
already the event
like a wave traveling shapes vision:

on the road where I stand they will materialize,
plodding past me in a straggling line
awkward without water

their small heads pondering
from side to side, their useless armour
sadder than tanks and history,

in their closed gaze ocean and sunlight paralyzed,
lumbering up the steps, under the archways
toward the square glass altars

where the brittle gods are kept,
the relics of what we have destroyed.
our holy and obsolete symbols.

Description

In the summer of the BP oil spill, I was humbled by the images of the animals that had been harmed by our need to get oil at any cost. I remembered reading Elegy for Giant Tortoises in Sallie McFague’s, The Body of God and it occurred to me to set it music; with permission I changed a few words to shift the context.

Science

NWF report on the oil spill

Sea Turtle Restoration Project

Bestiary

Giant Sea Turtle
Egyptian

Media

Composition of “Elegy for the Sea Turtles” © 2011. Lyrics are based on the Poem: “Elegy for the Giant Tortoises”, by Margaret Atwood, from the poetry collection SELECTED POEMS I, 1965 – 1975 currently published by Houghton Mifflin © 1976 by Margaret Atwood. Edits to the poem to make it applicable to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are approved by the Author. All rights reserved.

Start off slowly and see, soon, how
everyone’s joining in

Dive to the center but see, soon, how
it’s never stable

In phase transistion, we, turn, now
and everything changes

In perfect sevens we, turn, now
a quick rearranging

We’re a murmuration

Still then in waves, see, soon, how
continual movement

will keep us safe, and see, soon, how
we’ll never break apart

and trusting each other, we, turn, now
we are stronger than numbers

Warmer and warmer we, turn, now
Before the night cools us to sleep

We’re a murmuration

This is the mind of the universe
We are the ones who set it free
This is the mind of the universe
Who give it shape and wit and body

In tight formation, we, learn, now
just what we need to know

about tomorrow, we, learn, now
where we can be fulfilled

in swoops and soaring, you, learn, now,
collective behaviour

in every life form, you learn now
the answers you’re looking for

We’re a murmuration

Description

Murmurations of swallows have been studied because the collective behaviour that they show reveals deep patterns which all manner of creatures from small bacteria to large animals herds show. Swallows move in a murmuration by tracking their seven closest neighbours. There is a happy coincidence between this number and seven as a number of perfection in the bible. This way of being together gives body to the deep intelligence of the universe; to the mind of God.

Science

Cornell Ornithology Lab

Current Biology

Bestiary

Aberdeen
The Medieval Bestiary

Media

walking the land that killed my father’s father
finding the place where the atom broke
i trip on a branch and fall hard to the ground
i rise to my knees and through the smoke

crawling uneasily with the world’s disdain
a possum turns an ugly eye to me
the weight of an ancient and evolving history
starts to unfold as she says forcefully

if you want to put the world aright
go underground go underground tonight
if you want to put the world aright
go underground go underground tonight
go underground go underground tonight

walking away from the home that once knew me
looking for a place that’s all my own
i search for connections but there is no network
i yearn in the smallest way to be known

and then crawling over trash in my back alley
a possum turns an ugly eye to me
the weight of an ancient and evolving history
starts to unfold as she says forcefully

if you want to put the world aright …

walking towards a future that must hold me
searching for life in a new way
i dig my hands down into the deep rich soil
i pause, and then turn to face the day

when crawling beside me as we search the forest floor
a possum turns an ugly eye to me
the weight of an ancient and evolving history
starts to unfold as we say forcefully

What is the ground of my feeling lonely,
out of place and out of time
Is it just an empty melancholy,
Is it the bit of you you left behind

Supernatural Existential

How is it that I am guided by voices,
a bit too far, a bit too near
Or it that the whole creation is groaning
for everyone with ears to hear.

Supernatural Existential

And am I just like everyone, are we all the same
or am I just the only one, no one else to blame
And are you all in everyone, are you quiet or strong
or are you calling everyone, as if seized by song

Supernatural Existential

As deep calls to deep, in the cascades of your waterspouts
A thousand voices, a thousand songs,
a thousand languages delight the ear
The melody echoes from reef to reef,
washing over me within and without
From mother to daughter, from mother to son,
from mother to mother down the years

Stop! Turn around your heart
to the world which you once loved
The world in which now songbirds need to sing at night
and shark mothers give birth all by themselves
The world where brown bears give up on hibernation.

Ice, rain, clouds, lightning

And I could change, if you wanted me too.
Just like the climate changes
see my heart melt, feel my temperature rising,
Just like the climate changes

so Stop! Turn around your heart
to the world which you once loved
The world where frogs and lizards lose their leaves
and chestnut trees bloom before the spring has come
The world that forces squirrels and chipmunks up the mountains

Ice, rain, clouds, lightning

And I could change, do you really want me to?
change like the climate changes

Nothing will change the world, Nothing will change the world, change the world
Nothing will change the world, Nothing will change the world

In a hole
In a corner
of the bishop’s
antique credenza

Lives a mouse
a tiny mouse
with the name
Lorenza

And she thinks
about the world
and her friends
the ones she’s never seen

And she worries
about their safety
about their homes
the ones they’ve never had

she knows that

Nothing will change the world, Nothing will change the world, change the world
Nothing will change the world, Nothing will change the world

So she starts
A long long journey
Never knowing
Where she will sleep next

And each new day
Is another story
But she starts
To feel perplexed

Because all her friends
And their worlds
are constantly under siege

But she wonders
how you lift a siege
when you aren’t defending a home

she remembers

Nothing will change the world, Nothing will change the world, change the world
Nothing will change the world, Nothing will change the world

We think we know how you are feeling
We think we know how it makes us feel
We think our feelings are important
We think you need to learn how we feel

why do you circle around me
thorn in my side as you pierce my flesh
sucking the life out of my veins
leaving disease leaving me deranged

and i wish i could eradicate you
i wish that you would cease to exist
i wish that i could put something in your place
without you the world would be better than this

but i know,
i know that i need you
i know that you give just as much life
as you seem to take,
to take for your own self
oh jesus help me see the world

but i wake up just having fallen asleep
to the itch just beneath that one piece of skin
that i just can’t reach, i can’t reach that deep
and i wonder how i could begin

to really work for a way to eradicate you
to find how how you could cease to exist
i’m sure that something else would take your place
and the world would be much better than this

then i wonder
wonder if i need you
not for your food or your pollination
but because you take
you take for your own self
exactly this kind of temptation

then i know
i know that i need you
i know that you give just as much life
as you seem to take,
to take for your own self
oh jesus help me see the world

Mosquito’s are necessary for survival but yet humans think that their potential eradication is a good idea. This temptation to control our world harms our ability to be our best selves. This is perhaps the most important lesson that the mosquito has to teach us.