Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Dinosaurs and birds

I know exactly when I became a bird watcher. It was in 1974, and Robert Bakker had an article on dinosaurs in Scientific American. In it, he mentioned the new theory that birds were descended from dinosaurs. It was a magical moment. My beloved dinosaurs were not dead. They were all around me. I wrote a poem:

Little did I realize
That every summer breeze
Brings the sounds of dinosaurs
Singing in the trees.

And in the cool of morning,
When dew is barely dry,
The cousins of Triceratops
Soar across the sky.

Triceratops is dead and gone,
Which proves the worth of might.
Maybe we should put our trust
In music and in flight.

I know that dinosaurs are descended from therapods, and they are pretty remotely related to Triceratops, much farther away then cousins. But it works for the meter, and Tyrannosaurus does not; and my poetic license is around here somewhere.

If you think I am goofy, going on about birds, think of me as watching small, feathered dinosaurs...

1 Comments:

Blogger miss kris said...

What a delightful poem!

Hi, Eleanor! It's your cousin-ish Kristina, John Garrett's daughter. I don't know if you've ever talked to my dad about dinosaurs and their bird descendants, but he's rather fond of announcing that he's eating "dinosaur meat" every time my mom cooks chicken.

Anyway, I heard you'll be at Jon's for Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to seeing you! I'm writing a science fiction novel(la?), maybe you could give me some pointers?

Nice to see you on the blogosphere. :)

Kristina

2:44 PM  

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