'Kalua' Video and Other Updates

Hi guys. It gives me great satisfaction to announce that the video version of 'Kalua' has finally been finished and uploaded. You can view it from the link below.

http://youtu.be/k9X6ftWsOno

In other news, I'm working on a couple of new articles which will arrive on this blog soon, including that one about the First World War I mentioned at the end of last year. The Silent Animal Poetry series will continue as usual, and a few other poems are on their way.

Hope you're all having a good February.

Silent Animal Poetry (New Episode)

The second episode of Silent Animal Poetry is now online for your viewing pleasure. The poem this week is entitled 'Pelican Pier', so no prizes for guessing which animal features this week.

Just follow the link below to check it out:

http://youtu.be/xSvJPxL6Jig

There will be more episodes in the next few weeks, and I will continue with my articles and poetry on this blog.

See you all soon.

Wolf's Milk and Launch of Silent Animal Poetry

Hi everyone. Just a quick update followed by a bit of poetry.

This is a new poem entitled 'Wolf's Milk', and I'm putting this out there today to coincide with the launch of an idea I've been thinking about for a while. For the next few weeks, I will be uploading a silent, non-verbal rendering of an animal poem in video form, under the banner Silent Animal Poetry. Hopefully this will make up for my failure so far to upload the video version of 'Kalua'.

Anyway, without further ado, here is the first entry in the Silent Animal Poetry series:

Wolf's Milk

A wolf sits under a tree.
Grey fur, yellow eyes
and lean from days
without a kill.

Two cubs suckle,
hairless and pink,
mewling and squealing.
They could almost be
her own pups.

Their tiny hands grasp
at their wolf-mother's fur,
feeling for her teats.
Builders and conquerors
grow on she-wolf's milk.

(This poem depicts the she-wolf who, according to legend, suckled Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome. Here's the link to the video version: http://youtu.be/1HH4Lw8kZh0 )

The Almond Butter Migration

There was once a country farm
on which there lived three hornets,
who made a decent living
by farming almond butter.

Of course they had some almonds
who lived in sheds painted green.
They were quite a bit like bees,
but nowhere near as chatty.

Then the almonds went mental.
They caught two of the hornets
and served them up for breakfast,
but the third hornet had gone.

They decided to migrate,
but were not sure where to go.
They all voted on it quick,
and took the butter with them.

So it was that all almonds,
small and large, shelled and unshelled,
left the farm in their hundreds
and headed west on their way.

They took turns with the butter,
being careful to hold it
and not spill every last jar.
Almonds can be quite static.

Not in this specific case
as they were well on the move
and getting lost in the woods.
The butter was still intact.

Then the third hornet arrived.
The almonds were petrified.
Fortunately, they were brave
and resolved to stand and fight.

They fired butter at it
but the hornet evaded.
It attacked left, right and left,
stinging and stabbing about.

Then the almonds had a plan.
They lured the hornet in
with a jar of their butter,
and hid away behind trees.

The hornet feasted aplenty.
By the time he saw the trap
he was well and truly stuck.
Even his wings were useless.

He became a prisoner
of the new almond butter,
and was still in the tall jar
when the almonds reached paradise.

The almonds made their new home
by a lake in the woods.
They made more butter than sense
and were never farmed again.

(I apologise in retrospect about how long this poem is. It seems there's a lot to be said about almond butter, but not necessarily all in one poem.)