DANCE OF THE SPIRITS

The Cree Nation called them the Dance of the Spirits. We call them the Northern Lights. The scientific name is Aurora Borealis. I prefer the Cree name as to me it is more descriptive. Of course, if you know Latin and Greek, you know that Aurora is the Roman goddess of dawn and Boreas is the Greek name for the north wind. Aurora's are usually seen around the time of the Equinox and almost always at night and always in the Northern Latitudes.

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I was in the U.S. Army Reserve on maneuvers in Fort Drum which is located in North Central New York State close to the Southern Border of Canada. I awoke at approximately 3AM for some reason and stepped out of my tent. It was the last week of September and you could feel the snap of fall in the air. I could not believe my eyes. The night sky was ablaze with swirling greenish white with glints of red and blue in swirling undulations. A sight I had never seen before or since except in pictures. It was amazing and spectacular and easy to understand why ancient people felt they were coming from the Gods.

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If you've experienced the sight you know how it feels. If you haven't you should. It's a very humbling experience which will remain with you your entire life. I can bore you with the scientific causes of the Aurora, but it wouldn't be important. It's much better to believe the Cree name because they believed in the spirits of the earth they lived on and valued the land. They respected the animals and all life. It is a philosophy I wholly embrace and it's a damn shame that all people are not like the Native Americans. Maybe then there would be a future for the earth and all it's inhabitants.

ANCIENT TREE

My wife, Eunice, was a keen observer of nature. When we went to the beach, she would examine the effects of the tides on the creatures left behind by outgoing tide. She carried binoculars to watch and record the different types of birds which would feed at the many feeding stations she would have in different areas of the yard. She watched the progress of the many trees and plants I put in the ground. She would watch for visitors, white-tailed deer, raccoons, skunks, squirrels, chipmunks and many others who would come to eat and live on our property Eunice would observe how the changes in season affected everything.

When something happened she would write wonderfully descriptive poems using nature as metaphors for what she felt. In a way, I guess I was an observer of Eunice. One day she took me to an overlook to watch Bald Eagles who were nesting and fishing in the river below. That's another story.

Eunice was brought up by her grandmother who lived with us. When her grandma died Eunice wrote many poems about how she felt. The following work is the way Eunice combined both nature and her grandma. I hope you'll enjoy it.

ANCIENT TREE

Ancient tree, aged bones cracked and bent

Branches that twist and grope, reach out,

Beckon me...

I come closer and the ground rumbles from

Beneath, with roots like wooden snakes, which

Fold and then unfold, in grotesque design,

Like pythons ready to strike, they guard their

Treasure, their sacred tree...

I touch its pitted skin, and

Whisper, who put you here years before,

Tell me all you know...

Silent is this remnant from the past,

No brain, no voice, dead...

Suddenly, it looms its head into the air

Arms and legs, thrashing, bombard me

From above,

And on the ground,

Shadows flashing, Black and white,

Attack me in the wind...

I stand motionless,

A prisoner of nature's war...

The wind slows and rocks the shadows

To sleep,

The tree nods lazily,

It knows the secrets of the past...

And lets me go.

By Eunice Verdi.

HUMPBACKS

One hot and steamy mid-July day Eunice and I went on a whale watching cruise.It was something we had done many times before and always in the Atlantic Ocean in the whale feeding grounds off the tip of Provincetown, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. But this day was a day like no other.

As we left the harbor, the ocean breeze and occasional splashes of seawater was very invigorating and what one would expect doing a steady speed, cutting through the waves. It did not take long before we started to spot signs of whales at a distance and I then noticed Dolphins keeping pace with us and darting in and out of our wake. It appeared as if they were having a great time. We then started to slow down and the lookout shouted over the loudspeaker to look to our left. We would see the spouts of 2 or 3 humpback whales and the captain was going to try to get a closer look.

Then the spouts were gone, but the captain felt this would be a good spot to stop and sit and wait. So we did.As we sat, the air seemed to get thicker and change slowly, ever so slowly, in color. From a sparkling blue sea, it became a hazy orange to almost a reddish color and very, very still. Dead calm. Not a ripple. It seemed as though we were encased in a huge bubble and only the ship and the passengers were inside. Nothing else. Quiet

All of a sudden without any warning, a whale breached and crashed back into the ocean. Then another and another and then there were more and more and more. Magnificent Humpback whales. One after another they came. Breaching and crashing back into the ocean. Some with calves and some without, but all breaching. I had seen whales before and even fondled them, but I had never seen anything like this. I was not afraid. To the contrary, I felt it was one of the most wonderful and humbling experiences of my life. After a while they slowly began to stop and eventually some swam away and some relaxed a little and then disappeared.

I will not preach or judge others, but I will say this. We live in a world surrounded by living beings all very different from us and each other but all marvelous in their own right. Why do we kill them for any reason? I will say no more as this is a personal thing. As for this story, I had to share the experience. As I said when I started, this was a day like no other. A day like this I may never see again. But then again, you never know.

Frank Verdi - 8-5-2010