New Mirror Poem Mixes Life Philosophy with Natural World Metaphors

Hi, it’s William Wolfsworth, satirical comedy poetry correspondent at the Greenygrey inspired by legendary Romantic poet William Wolfsworth. I forgot to tell you that last week’s Reflection 12 from 242 Mirror Poems and Reflections mirrored Human and Society Chicken and Egg Dilemma Oddly Solved, a poem posted on fmpoetry.wordpress.com just over three years ago.

New Mirror Poem

I was reminded of that because Marc Latham posted a new Folding Mirror poem on fmpoetry yesterday, and I have just imported it into the greenYgrey world. It mixes life philosophy with lots of natural world metaphors. Here it is:

Street scene in Hollindale (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Translucent Fall, Rise Transparent

life’s monotonous dreamscape
colour on dancing shadows
less rational than raindrops
doing what comes naturally
breaking an ocean apart
before returning to cloud

swimming and flying, living and dying

is dry land closer
to sea or air
should we even care
it’s sensible to sleep
while moonshine paints haunting
death’s monochrome nightmares

Raindrops (Photo credit: Mariam S)

Chris Packham’s Natural World Amazing Animals Ant Acropolis

Hi, it’s Chris Packwolf, natural world correspondent at the Greenygrey. I’m delighted to report that Marc Latham’s fourth article about my human parallel Chris Packham’s three-part Nature’s Weird Events series is now on the Suite 101 Natural World Media channel.

Birds Use Spider Silk for Nests

Among the weird natural events featured in the nature documentary and article, are birds using spider silk to build nests and the migratory behaviour of monarch butterflies and elephants; and the spectacles they create.

There is also a massive ant colony structure that is being excavated in Mexico showing the complexity of the ant world. The 160-foot (fifty metres) square complex is thought to have housed seven million leaf-cutter ants.

The ants use grass as fungus for fertiliser. The complex contained chambers for different departments, like a human building or city. There’s a video on YouTube showing such an ant colony excavation (might be the same one):

Pedigree Dogs and Wild Wolves: the Truth

Image via Wikipedia

Hi, it’s Harry Silhouetteof-Wolfhowlingonhill. Last night there was a good but sad documentary about how pedigree dogs have been bred into deformity by decades of human engineering. Pedigree Dogs Exposed: Three Years On showed how dogs’ skulls and bones have been changed into totally different shapes in under a century; like an evolution of convenience for humanity’s vision, rather than the animal’s health. The dogs have trouble living a normal life, and even breathing in some cases. It’s available on BBC iplayer in the UK; don’t know about other availability: http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01cqp75/

Also, tonight at 10 on BBC4 there’s a Natural World documentary on the Wolf Pack (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0078ps7). I think I’ve seen it before, and it’s a warts n’ all documentary, so not all good for wolves, but is a balanced look at the wolf and how it really lives (unlike the wolfophobia of The Grey film!).

Celebrity Big Brother Wolfophobia Works, Video Killed the Loris

Hi, it’s Harry Silhouetteof-Wolfhowlingonthehill. I thought our Andy Wolfhol was taken artistic license when he complained about wolfophobia on last week’s Celebrity Big Brother, where they had tasks with a fairy tale theme. These included a big bad wolf in Red Riding Hood and Three Little Pigs.

Wolfophobia from Show to Contestant

But on Tuesday’s highlights, one of the twins (Kristina I think) was talking about Denise in an negative way, and said she was like the big bad wolf. I doubt if she’d have thought of that analogy before the task, but about two weeks later it was still resonating in her mind when she was looking for a negative description. I hope you haven’t been affected in a similar way.

Video and Human Kindness Killed the Slow Loris

I watched a sad Natural World documentary on the BBC last night about the slow loris’s struggle to survive extinction. While humanity is largely to blame, it is mainly through kindness and empathy. They are very cute animals, like us werewolves, and when someone put a video of one being tickled up on YouTube it went viral, and then lots of people wanted one as a pet.

That was where the kindness ended, and callous greed took over. Many were taken out of the wild, and died while being transported in small suffocating cages. Others had their sharp teeth pulled out with pliers.

They are predators, and can have damaging fights with each other, but the biggest danger to their survival is the global demand for them as pets.

It’s available until 14th March in the UK on the Natural World link above or BBC address below. Don’t know about other availability. http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01bcp7z/