EKPHRASIS : Art Describing Art : 2015
California Writers Club, Mendocino Branch : A Collaboration : Artists Co-Op of Mendocino
Writers Providing Works for Visual Artists Responses
Holly Tannen “Listen to the Dinosaurs”
Provided work for the responding visual artist,
Janet Self “Feathered”
"Listen To The Dinosaurs"
Words: © 2015 Holly Tannen
Tune: Listen to the Radio, by Nancy Griffith
“Huge meat-eating, land-living dinosaurs evolved into birds by constantly shrinking for over 50 million years.” - BBC Nature, July 31, 2014
Recent finds of feathered dinosaurs support the long-held theory that dinosaurs are the ancestors of birds. Feathers evolved for insulation and perhaps display, and 150-million-year-old fossils found in China and Russia suggest that many dinosaurs were fluffy, if not cuddly.
“Birds evolved through…sustained miniaturization in dinosaurs…(T)he ability to climb trees, glide and fly…helped birds survive the deadly meteorite impact which killed off…their dinosaurian cousins.” - Michael Lee, Science, August 1, 2014
The first time I saw a raven fly upside down I thought I was hallucinating, but the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology recorded a raven flying upside down for over half a mile.
Words: © 2015 Holly Tannen
Tune: Listen to the Radio, by Nancy Griffith
“Huge meat-eating, land-living dinosaurs evolved into birds by constantly shrinking for over 50 million years.” - BBC Nature, July 31, 2014
Recent finds of feathered dinosaurs support the long-held theory that dinosaurs are the ancestors of birds. Feathers evolved for insulation and perhaps display, and 150-million-year-old fossils found in China and Russia suggest that many dinosaurs were fluffy, if not cuddly.
“Birds evolved through…sustained miniaturization in dinosaurs…(T)he ability to climb trees, glide and fly…helped birds survive the deadly meteorite impact which killed off…their dinosaurian cousins.” - Michael Lee, Science, August 1, 2014
The first time I saw a raven fly upside down I thought I was hallucinating, but the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology recorded a raven flying upside down for over half a mile.
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I am bound for Mendocino in the morning rain
Past coastal towns where fog is thick and tourists all complain Past redwood trees and cars and dinosaurs Where would I be without the songs of the dinosaurs? CHORUS: 'Cause when you can't find a friend, you’ve still got the dinosaurs When you can't find a friend, you’ve still got the dinosaurs Dinosaurs, listen to the dinosaurs. I left a clueless, four-eyed computer nerd on Franklin Street Staring at his laptop, watching Game of Thrones, wondering what's become of me Got my Nikons and my Sibley’s in the trunk of my Accord And I am leaving Fort Bragg to look for dinosaurs. There’s a hawk above the headlands north of Mendocino town See the pelicans and the cormorants and the ravens upside down That computer nerd’ll find his laptop in the garbage can And I am leaving Fort Bragg to look for dinosaurs. The ravens brought their babies to the birdbath yesterday They splashed around, they begged for food, and then they flew away They have scales, they have claws, like dinosaurs And they all sing the song of the dinosaurs. |
