EKPHRASIS : Art Describing Art : 2015
California Writers Club, Mendocino Branch : A Collaboration : Artists Co-Op of Mendocino
Writers Responding to Visual Artworks
Nancy Wallace-Nelson “Aldea Alba in Flight”
Responded to visual artwork by
Pat Toth-Smith “Egret Ah Glow”
Aldea Alba in Flight by Nancy Liela Wallace-Nelson
Aldea Alba your genus,
oh great white heron,
inward, private and pure white
you wade tall and stately in quiet hidden places.
Though not hidden enough, for hunters found you,
and by 1915 you almost vanished from our sight,
your sleek white plumage sacrificed
to human greed, to the profitable sale
of your precious feathers
gaudily adorning hats, clothes and Victorian décor,
until we saved you in the 1930’s.
So proud of ourselves, we made you
the poster bird for the Audubon Society.
For conservation you became a messenger of hope.
Once again you spread your massive wings wide,
and soared to the sky with your loud, raucous cries.
White and regal, you continue still
to shine your crystalline feathers
against the dark of our deepening pollution,
the plumage hunters grown more subtle.
They’ve gone underground,
drilling, fracking into your ponds and streams,
their oil–infested water soaking into
the seeds in your marshes,
and endangering your amphibian prey.
If only you could spread those mighty wings wide
and call out loudly enough with your clarion cries,
and finally rouse the complacent world
to the dangers of these new predators.
How long, oh Aldea Alba,
until all our fine plumage is plucked bare?
Aldea Alba your genus,
oh great white heron,
inward, private and pure white
you wade tall and stately in quiet hidden places.
Though not hidden enough, for hunters found you,
and by 1915 you almost vanished from our sight,
your sleek white plumage sacrificed
to human greed, to the profitable sale
of your precious feathers
gaudily adorning hats, clothes and Victorian décor,
until we saved you in the 1930’s.
So proud of ourselves, we made you
the poster bird for the Audubon Society.
For conservation you became a messenger of hope.
Once again you spread your massive wings wide,
and soared to the sky with your loud, raucous cries.
White and regal, you continue still
to shine your crystalline feathers
against the dark of our deepening pollution,
the plumage hunters grown more subtle.
They’ve gone underground,
drilling, fracking into your ponds and streams,
their oil–infested water soaking into
the seeds in your marshes,
and endangering your amphibian prey.
If only you could spread those mighty wings wide
and call out loudly enough with your clarion cries,
and finally rouse the complacent world
to the dangers of these new predators.
How long, oh Aldea Alba,
until all our fine plumage is plucked bare?
