Flying Gallop

 

Before Eadweard Muybridge

came along

most painters painted

their horses wrong.

 

When galloping, galloping

at great speed,

where would they paint the

legs of their steed?

 

We can hear when they gallop

and gallop at pace

there’s a break in the sound,

like their feet are in space.

 

So we know from this galloping

galloping sound,

there’s a time when all hooves

are NOT on the ground.

 

Like a carousel horse

with its legs all-stretched-out,

most artists made horse-legs

the wrong way about.

 

Then Muybridge’s movie

closed the affair.

Horse-legs are TUCKED

when all in the air.

 

Perched high on a horse,

we can’t really tell

as it’s hard to see where

a horse’s legs dwell.

 

And a galloping gallop’s like

flying as well.

So let’s soar on a horse

on a carousel!

 

Inspired by The Horse in Motion movie by Eadweard Muybridge 1878
http://100photos.time.com/photos/eadweard-muybridge-horse-in-motion

Bash and Flash

I’ve got a see-through bouncy ball

with little lights inside its core.

So when I bounce it on the ground

those lights all flash and spin around.

 

I think it’s got a battery

to give those lights some energy.

Then when it’s hit, it’s like a switch

that turns those lights on in a twitch.

 

They don’t stay on for very long

but every bounce will switch them on.

Unless the battery goes flat …

but my ball hasn’t got to that.

 

I want to see my ball in flight

and watch those pretty flashing lights

so bounce it hard, with all my might

upon the concrete drive at night.

 

My energy from that strong throw

means, at the point I let it go,

it’s got kinetic energy

that’s greater than just gravity.

 

And when my ball has hit the ground

some energy converts to sound.

Like rapping once upon a drum

it makes a bang and short soft hum.

 

I watched those lights flash as it zoomed

towards the starry sky and moon.

So do you think I set it free

to fly off for eternity?

 

Or will it soon return to me

attracted by Earth’s gravity?

The lights stopped flashing. All was black.

I didn’t see it coming back …

 

Until it hit me on the chin

then all those lights went flash and spin.

But while I held my jaw in pain

those pesky lights went out again!

 

I couldn’t find my flash new ball.

It must have travelled on a roll.

I’ll have to wait until it’s day

to find it so that we can play.

Impropagation

 

A crack in the concrete is all it takes

for a small seed to lodge and germinate.

Its roots exude acid dissolving cement.

And so it has grown where it wasn’t meant.

 

Ignored by pedestrians tramping through

with sunlight and water it proudly grew.

And look at it now.  Majestic and high.

Being kissed and blessed by a butterfly!

 

Inspired by the Artwork Living Freedomby Sharon Davson www.davsonarts.com

 

An oak tree needs its acorns to

be planted in the forest soil.

But all it does is drop them on

the ground where they could quickly spoil.

An acorn is the oak tree’s fruit

containing seed and fatty food,

a kind of nut that bugs can drill

to lay their eggs where they can brood.

 

But once that acorn nut is used

by moths to make their baby’s home

the seed inside that acorn can

no longer live and can’t be grown.

Now squirrels are most passionate

about these tasty acorn nuts.

They eat them in large quantities

with cheeks so full they’re fit to bust!

They pick the perfect acorns last

and hide them in the forest soil,

returning in the winter-time

to dig them up and eat a meal.

But squirrels sometimes make mistakes,

forgetting where they buried some,

and so those planted acorns get

to grow as oak trees in the sun.

from “The Science Rhymes Book”