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Monday 18 July 2011

Parthenogenesis


.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Varanus_komodoensis5.jpg

Komodo Dragon, Varanus komodoensis, confirmed to be able to reproduce naturally by parthenogenesis
: photo by Raul654, January 2006





The bickering of the ravens in the dirt
left behind by the demolition crew
and then later, further raven sightings
and auditions in the shady glade
along the meandering captive creek
in the eucalyptus grove by life sciences
where the steroidal Titan once gave birth
by parthenogenesis





http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/StrawberryCreek1.JPG

Strawberry Creek by Gilman Hall facing East
: photo by Coro, 13 January 2009

File:Juniorposter.jpg

Film poster for
Junior (Universal Pictures, 1994): image by Quentin X, 23 April 2009 (via Impawards)


A pair of Common Ravens, North American subspecies (Corvus corax principalis), Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah: photo by Marlin Harms, 18 October 2010

5 comments:

STEPHEN RATCLIFFE said...

Tom,

Thanks for this, which in addition to an absence of fog this morning (how strange) brings me great cheer --this "steroidal Titan," Strawberry Creek, our former "steroidal Titan," and that pair of ravens (who know more than they're saying, it seems). . . .

7.18

light coming into sky above still black
ridge, waning white moon next to branch
in foreground, sound of wave in channel

time as object of time, can
be that present being

to one, to a limited extent,
one sees only “sounds”

grey white clouds against top of ridge,
whiteness of gulls gliding to the left

Anonymous said...

A really lovely, funny, and slightly mysterious summer poem, which suits the weather mood on this coast (no eucalyptuses here or ravens that I've noticed) also.

TC said...

Steve will have been familiar with this milieu, from his Embryonic Period.

Curtis, as to the mysterious factor: "life sciences" is Life Sciences, a massive cluster of academic buildings of which the westernmost and modern-most is the unit that holds the Genetics labs. It was there that the movie "Junior", with its ten attendant big trucks, was filmed.

What Nature may be unable to do, Art it seems is all too capable of, given enough big trucks.

Anonymous said...

I figured out most of it, but I'm pleased to say that even with the "literal" explanation supplied, the element of mystery, which animates the poem, survives. The Schwarzenegger phenomenon remains a mystery also. Who would have imagined any of it?

TC said...

Hollywood.