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Poems and Thoughts by Frank Maurer

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Art

Goli opus 11

How joyous it was watching you photograph
A few of our fellow creatures (dragonflies!).
I identified so much that you were I,
As you patiently crouched and waited
For your subject to present itself
In a perfect manner (with music!).

Please consider using your photos
With your future daycare children.
They would be delighted
To know you took the photos
And to hear your explanations of nature.

(Consult me for any nature questions you seek!)

Your devoted and caring friend,
Frank.

What is Beauty? opus 239

Humans have wondered for centuries as to what beauty truly is.
Why is it that often after a stroke or brain damage,
That artistic ability often manifests itself or that existing abilities improve?
What goes with our brains and aesthetics--it is not sex nor food!
It is clear humans make aesthetic judgements of faces;
Perhaps described as charming, stunning, or gorgeous.
Even infants (at six months!) gaze longer at an attractive face.

Innately, our brain seems to be evolutionarily organized.
There may be an adaptation for better survival;
Symmetry may be interpreted for better infant health and survival,
An epiphenomenon which depicts a longer, better life.
Faces and natural landscapes elicit these choices--types,
As opposed to architecture and then human art,
Which yield less response.

Now contemplate games--soccer is rated as 'a beautiful game'--
The choreography and elegance of players' movements.
Also consider the beauty of science--E=mc2, mathematics or chess.
An infant's face lights up, having just understood some manipulation.
The satisfaction of knowing beauty can adaptively accomplish usefulness.
There is a satisfaction of taking something apart and then, back together.
What a wonder to contemplate why protons in a nucleus
Remain together and do not repel one another
And to then discover the function of quarks and gluons which help do such:
This results in weak forces when close together
And strong forces when further apart.

Even efficiency is a beautiful thing!
Biological reproduction yields mutated variability,
All of which is selected for survival.
Beauty is not only functional, but useful--
Consider a bee's hexagonal wax cell.
Why can most incomprehensible things in the world,
Be at the same time comprehensible?

But why?
To paraphrase Keats--'Beauty is Truth and Truth is Beauty. That is all'.

Condemned to a Possible Death Sentence? opus 335

I was listening today to Public Radio featuring
A narrative about a woman who was
Wrongfully convicted unjustly to a death sentence
For a crime she did not commit.
After 17 years of solitary confinement,
And pro bono help from volunteer attorneys,
She was absolved of the crime and released
To a new world of a lost family and a totally new start.

I was also condemned to isolation and possible death,
While I was living in Turkiye on my new teaching job.
Suddenly, I was coughing up blood and feeling very weak.
I had been travelling, and had to make it back to Turkiye.
Tuberculosis, probably from my childhood,
Reared its head and condemned me to several months of isolation
And several overlapping medications to stabilize my condition.
I was condemned and isolated in my little apartment,
Where my coworkers were wary of visiting because of the disease.
Just as the condemned woman kept herself busy,
I practiced several arts to occupy my mind and remain somewhat sane.

I had learned about the intentional language, Esperanto,
While travelling through Bulgaria.
I purchased a 12-Step 'Teach Yourself Esperanto' and 'went to town'.
After a few weeks, I ordered various literature materials
And started reading. The language is so learner-compatible,
That I read half a page, before resorting to a dictionary!

My 'cello was my musical companion, upon which I practiced
Each day to the point of evening exhaustion!
During this time, I also started composing
A flute and 'cello 12-Tone System duet.
At that time I wrote a couple of scientific articles,
Along with many letters to colleagues and friends.

Without these diversions, I would have been totally lost.
As with confinement, isolation of any kind must be contended with.
The gregarious behavior of humans is a very powerful need
And must always be pursued in all conditions.
To be completely isolated, is to gradually destroy all humanity in a person.

The Unfolding of Classical Music's Morphology opus 395

Palestrina -- Forbidden to add a touch of dissonant spice.

Bach, Vivaldi, Corelli, Handel, Scarlatti -- Lush harmonies of longitudinal
    interaction with not a single pause.

Haydn -- Father of the orchestra, but always locked into the motif.

Mozart and Beethoven -- Students of Haydn, but each morphed so
    differently--still locked into the motif--the former just a more
    brilliant form of the teacher; while the latter struggled with new
    forms,--still locked into the motif!

Mendelsohn -- Composing on the Christian side of a split family.

Brahms and Bruckner -- Giant, with so much more free form--truly Romantic.

Debussy -- The gentler tone poem--stories in a pleasant flow of notes.
    (e.g. La Mer).

Tchaikovsky -- A tortured man, but the flash of musical Russia is
    always there.

Shostakovitch -- New frontiers with his 12-Tone System.

Stravinsky -- New style and sound--Picasso-like. (Listen to his Mass.)

Now the electronics -- Several good composers have worked in this
    medium for years.

Modern freestyle -- Lose and often cacophonous and kaleidoscopic.

There is something for every listener, in any mood and/or with any emotion.

Our Preferences of Beauty opus 412

I was asked why some people consider butterflies beautiful
And not other insects or, indeed, many other forms of life.
Understanding beauty is the result of familiarity and appreciation:
This is a result of a good teacher--parent or other--who describes
The wonder of the evolutionary process forming an organism
And the complexity of the incredible detail of such subject.
Consider the huge group of Coleoptera (beetles),
Manifesting an amazing array of color and shape.
To the uninitiated, these 'bugs' could be considered ugly and dangerous.
There are others--snakes, bats, mosquitoes, crustaceans, bees, skunks--
And so many more, which make up a large list.
It all comes down to a complete understanding and admiration of function
And the necessary depth to which one might possibly be submersed
Into the complete and 'true' feeling of what beauty really means!

Alex Salmond (Former Scottish Prime Minister) opus 442

So many around me are passing on their mortal coil.
This, of course, is because of my age of 83.
I just learned of the passing of Scottish Alex Salmond, 69,
Who fought politically so fervently for Scottish Independence.
I met Alex in San Francisco, while he reached out to California
To increase Scottish trade with the world's 6th largest economic entity.
Alex loved horse racing, so our meeting occurred at a Bay Area race track--
Including kilts, talk of Scottish history, scotch,
And a display of my hand-carved stones.
There, I made a presentation of a small stone carving,
Depicting a knot overlaid by the Scottish thistle.

Days later, Upon Salmond's return to Scotland,
I received a wonderful, much treasured thank you note, from Alex,
Expressing his warm thanks, praising my ancient carving methods.
Alex Salmond will truly be a part of Scotland's continual attempts
To be once again an independent nation-state,
And I am so proud to have known him.

A Superfluous Opinion opus 458

I received a donation to our student endowment
With calligraphy very bold, plain, but attractive.
I assumed that the male donor's wife was the writer--
This was of course with the assumption
That this was a 'woman's craft'.
I thus questioned him concerning his wife's contribution.
Oh no! He had been a draftsman
And thus his accomplished writing style.

How wrong a superfluous opinion can be.

Ancient Artists Proved Right! opus 459

We have all loved the beautiful cave paintings
Made thousands of years ago.
Deep in dark caves, illuminated by torches
To enable the artists to complete their works.
Of many, one stands out--that of the Wooly Rhinoceros.
An incredible, strong depiction, but with a hump,
Emphasizing a great arch on its back.
Was this created out of an artist's imagination
Or were these creatures endowed with such morphology?
Recently a Coelodonta antiquitatis
Was pulled from 10,000 year old permafrost.
It was in Yakutia, Siberia, and what do you know?
The body exhibited a shoulder hump,
Proving that the ancient artists were more than accurate.
The humps with their lipid stores
Did indeed aid the rhinos through rough,
Challenging winter months.

One More New Year's Eve, Following Thousands opus 494

It is New Year's Eve and I am with the stone tools--
The stone tools I have been collecting--
Those of the ancient Neanderthal.
As I open each wrap, sent from France!,
I look at the stone, ponder its use, and then hold it,
As I visualize the Neanderthal, themselves,
Holding and working with each stone.
Is there any way that one might
Really fantasize a million years ago?
I feel so close to these people through their utensils,
Manifested in a scraper, a blade, a drill,
A cleaver, a handaxe, or a point.
The only thing missing is the cave fire pit
With many of us seated around.

Did Neanderthals Have a Feeling of Ownership? opus 499

I have now collected a good number of Neanderthal stone tools,
These from an old collection in France--tools 100,000 years old!
I hold each one, and feel how it might have been to skin a Fallow deer.
Many made of flint or chalcedony
Are more or less attractive in color and shape.
Some seem to have been more efficient in their task.
Some feel more comfortable when held, ready for the task.
From this I wonder if, as we might have behaved,
That there were 'favorite' tools, claimed exclusively for ownership.
'No, that is my tool--do not dare touch it.'
Did Neanderthals have a feeling of personal possession?
We now know they collected objects of 'useless' beauty,
Just for the attractiveness of the shell or stone.
By discerning beauty, did these people feel ownership
Of some of their stone tools?

Did the Cave Artists Get the Hump Correct? (Another Glimpse) opus 519

Coelodonta antiquitatis is the name of the woolly rhinoceros,
Painted in the ancient cave art in France, among others.
They went extinct for several reasons 10,000 years ago.
The big question is, did the Ice Age artists
Take creative liberties by adding a nuchal hump?
Well, an ancient rhino was discovered
In the permafrost in Yakutia, Siberia--
And what do you know--it possessed a hump,
Which seems to have been an adaptation to cold.
It appears that these artists were uncanny
In their depictions of the important creatures around them.
I have viewed these paintings many times and with each gaze,
I have been overwhelmed by their accuracy and absolute beauty.

Creativity opus 537

Just what causes one to record a Thought or a Poem?
For me, there are several different stimuli that lead to a written page:
If I hear someone speaking about a certain subject
And wish to embellish it in a particular manner;
Or if a memory of a past experience pops into my head;
Possibly it might be stimulated by a foreboding of the future;
A particular sound or shape or color might lead to a written image;
Comparison of the present with the past, or a future event which might unfold;
Or possibly I wish to write something sad or joyful,
Manifesting reality or imagination;
Protest or anger about a situation may spark a creative impulse;
Of course it is always fun to write a short image about a person
And slip it to herm physically or auditorily to fulfill another's
passion or portrait.
The ultimate question remains--will anyone actually read it!

Wings of Birds--Thoughts of a Modern Homo opus 550

I, as a child, and still today, am fascinated with bird wings.
Is the attraction the aerodynamic shape or color patterns,
Or just the mere fact that their proximity partially fulfills the desire to fly?
We Homo sapiens are not the only hominin so attracted.
In Neanderthal butchery sites, it appears bird's wings were treated specially,
With many avian bones bearing ornamental markings.
How wonderful it would be, going back in time,
To actually sit beside a Neanderthal carver,
Witnessing his or her methods,
While (possibly) conversing about the artistic significance.

The Mason (Inspired by Jay W.) opus 554

Could you ever imagine yourself as a bricklayer--
Or, namely, a mason or a builder?
In German it is Maurer and a Mauer is a wall,
And the verb is mauen--boy, they have it all tied up!
But back to the point; a bricklayer builds huge things--
Walls and such, using only tiny rectangular 'cubes',
Fused together with well mixed mortar.
Piece by piece, each element is put in place,
With, obviously, a greater plan that these small elements
Will finally result in a great facade, winning praise,
Delight, and an emotion of being overwhelmed.
How is it that one has such patience and foresight
To create these magnificents to inspire all those
Who would not dare to attempt such creations?

On Ornaments and Clothing, with Easter in Mind opus 568

Humans (Homo sapiens) are a naked ape with a flattened face.
This is the result of neoteny, an adult form, maintaining juvenile characters.
Humans have no natural pigments as with Mandrills.
We know that Neanderthals utilized some forms of decoration,
But humans have gone all out for bodily adornment--
Painted faces, use of feathers, jewelry, and regal robes.
It is Easter today, and outstanding clothing, including garish hats,
Are in great prominence during this one day of holiday time.
As one commentator stated, "To catch the eye of god" (and man and woman).
Human bodily decoration, be it jewels or cloth, are always prominent.
The garment industry makes millions and causes great waste,
As our decorations go out of fashion. Many garments just go to the dump.
One example is the killing of egrets for their plumes--
Almost to the complete decimation of that species.
(That is one reason why the Audubon Society was created, by women,
In order to raise awareness and create laws to save birds.)
We, as a 'decorating species', must now consider:
Fewer changes of clothing, purchasing good used garments,
Not always following mindless trends, and recycling clothing responsibility.
Read Thoreau's 'On Walden' focusing on 'On Clothing'.
I say no more.

Blind Devotion? opus 584

Easter Islanders, blindly carved ever-more of their 'sacred heads',
Until all 'needed' resources were completely diminished.
With the creation of our excessively hungry new god--AI--
Will we also inevitably go the way of the now extinct Islanders?

What of the Pictish Stone Creatures' Orientations? opus 599

Having observed the many Pictish carved standing stones,
Created from about 500 AD to 800 AD in Northern Scotland,
I have often questioned the reason, most creature figures face to the right.
Although there probably is no correct answer,
There could be several reasons just why this had occurred.
Concerning cultural significance, such orientation may have symbolized
A connection to the afterlife or spiritual beliefs.
Perhaps it was due only to a common artistic convention.
Would a symbolic direction represent positive attributes or good fortune?
Perhaps there was a narrative flow or some historical influence.
Right-facing figures might have been part of certain rituals or ceremonies.
Finally, as most humans (90%) have been right-handed,
Their figures follow a flow of the eye from left to right.
Whatever caused this orientation, and without a true written language,
We may never know,
But instead must continue to marvel in their stone-carved figures.

The Tattooer opus 624

Might you comprehend the life of a tattooer?
Well, heesh must be, obviously, an artist,
With an ever steady hand and a flawless eye.
As the needle passes over the flesh,
There are few chances to correct any flaw.
But, beyond the challenges of art,
A tattooer must always bend over hiser work.
The strain of such continual posture,
Slowly challenges proper posture
Along with the strain on the back.
Beware and take heed tattooers,
And know that the cryptic challenge
Is waiting to diminish your productivity.

A Ten Minute 'Peek' at a Kabuki Theatre Evolved into Three Hours! opus 651

About 1977, I was travelling home from Sweden,
Heading east from Europe towards California.
One of my 13 stops was in Japan, specifically Kyoto.
Wandering the streets, I came across a Kabuki Theatre.
I went in, found a seat in the back, on an aisle,
And settled in for whatever was to come.
A short performance commenced for about 10 minutes,
When suddenly, mainly--'foreign-looking' tourists
Got up and left (a tour).
I was not at all ready to leave and remained seated.
Then the real show began with all its dramatics!
As I sat, enthralled, a Japanese person came to me,
And handed, in English, a synopsis of each proceeding play.
How thoughtful and helpful in understanding
This wonderful type of theatre.
I remained for three hours, leaving with the locals,
Who had with them, by-the-way,
Bag lunches to enjoy during the performance.
I was so completely glad that I remained
Able to enjoy myself with those locals!
The art of Kabuki remains with me until today.

My First Photo, Featuring a Flicker opus 706

I was 8 and had hung my first bird feeder,
Created from a Christmas tree stump with drilled holes,
Stuffed with a peanut butter-seed mix.
I had become very interested in our (New England) birds.
I also had a feeling I would be good at photography,
Watching my father with his old (then new) Argus camera.
Birds began feeding, especially the Flicker, 
Which greatly attracted me.
One Sunday morning while at breakfast,
As that Flicker was clinging there on the stump,
I shyly asked my father if I might borrow his camera
And somehow attempt a photo--somehow.
I had never ever snuck up on a bird with a camera.
(Remember, telephotos were rare for 'commoners' back then.)
He said yes, reviewed the operating instructions,
And off I went, out the door into the snow,
Being as 'invisible' as I was able.
I crossed the driveway and started up the side bank.
My untrained, young mind said I had gone far enough.
I raised the camera and snapped twice.
The bird miraculously remained undisturbed--
Either because of my 'great approaching skills',
Or that bird was just plain hungry!
The film was developed, and a week(!) later,
Surprised us all, delightfully, with my first bird photos--
In fact, with my first photos of any sort.
I was hooked and many more photos 
Continued on from there throughout my life.

The Making of a Stone Carver opus 709

My first trip with Nora, my late wife, to Ireland and Scotland,
Unfolded some adumbrations of my past ancestry.
I had done some genealogy before the trip for Nora's paper presentation.
I knew I went back to the Picts and the first Scottish king, Kenneth MasCalpine.
By actually being in these countries, it solidified my whole ancestry.
I attended seminars on the Pict's stone carving and woad tattooing.
(Woad is a European herb related to the mustards.
Woad is also a blue dye made from its leaves.)
When I returned home, I concentrated on learning to carve stones.
I found Mr. Rukala, the mason for the Sacramento Cemetery.
I and a young friend drove across the valley from Davis to Rockland.
Rukala met us, said he had twenty minutes for the lesson,
When he immediately began demonstrating with mallet and chisel.
As he proceeded, the main point became ever-clear--
Carve 'always away from the weak point or line'.
With this principle constantly in mind, one can rarely go wrong.
He presented me with a few old, huge chisels--never used--
And invited me to grab some stones on which to practice.
Then, he departed and we were left alone!
We drove home, picked out a large sandstone piece,
Originally found at Lake Berryessa and started in.
This first and quite well done carving, if I do say so myself,
Was of the Rhynie standing stone,
Depicting the fourth century salmon and Pictish Beast.
The instructions were perfect and the carving remains in my home.
To reach out with my craft; I left examples in several craft stores.
This was not a huge success, because I could not 
Match the price of the laser-made items.
I decided to participate in a local Scottish Games festival.
People began purchasing--everything went to my QR Land Trust.
An artisan came by and said, "I have not seen you before",
And invited me to another festival farther up north.
That started things off, developing to 15 festivals, 
Which I attended each year. 
The festivals covered Nevada, California, Oregon, and Washington--
A large commitment, but all a labor of love and fun.
I was showered in fliers, newscasts, brochures, and invitations.
A slow, but incredible fulfillment of reputation and devotion.
And so it went for many years and several hundred stones!

The Additional Value of Postage Stamps opus 741

I have delved into the Numismatics of our coins,
And have discovered wonderful history as told by them.
The minting of coins throughout our history,
Portrays US history that might today otherwise be overlooked.
Tha loss of the Danish postal system
Manifests adumbrations of another loss of history.
More obviously than coins, stamps (philately)
Reflect pictorially what a nation holds valuable,  
In that this mini-art form speaks out for a nation's values.
This important minimal art portrays 
Human heroes and important landscapes.
If and when our postal system is modified or eliminated,
Yet another quiet depiction-recording of our civilization
Will be sadly halted, just as the Egyptian petroglyphs
Were finally and abruptly cut short 
With the loss of the utilization of the art of stone carving.
(Originally, before stamps, recipients paid for a letter,
But with so many ships sinking, the sender started paying.)