) FEB 25 (2024) singable satire: 'VIEW of EARTH'

 b) Today's Offering (Feb 25, 2024): 

ORIGINAL SONG: "The Book of Love", 1999 by Monotones; best known cover by Peter Gabriel 

MUSICAL UNDERPINNINGS: Giorgio Coniglio, October 2013.

PHOTOS: Edward Burtynsky website

UKULELE and GUITAR-FRIENDLY LINK: Our whole series of songs can be found in a friendly format for ukulele (and guitar)-players on our sister blog "SILLY SONGS and SATIRE" with chord-charts for both the parody and original song, as well as helpful performing suggestions. 

 find ukulele and guitar chord-charts to help you accompany "VIEW of EARTH" on your favorite instrument, click HERE.    

With the recent book “Water” and film “Watermark”, Edward Burtynsky (“Manufactured Landscapes”) has used aerial photography to further document extensive degradation of our planet’s water-resource. As Burtynsky brings a Canadian sensitivity to the issue, I have used a few French words in these lyrics. eaux, water (pl) and haut, high, are pronounced as ‘oh’. autrui, others, and  ouïe, ouch!  rhyme with ‘see’.

VIEW OF EARTH  

(to the tune of "The Book of Love")

To view our Earth is disconcerting;

Dammed place may land up dry as bones;

With overuse and exponential

Expansion of industrial zones.

But,  eyes high I spy ......
Icefloes’ demise from polar seas;

And eaux-----oh those emotive

Haut-photos of Burty-ynsky’s!

Ice-caps dislodging, likely toasted;

Will flood the coastlines, raise the seas;

Less rain on heights, our food-stores threatened; 

Our stewardship’s a travesty.

Water-woes….. we owe to no one

Only ourselves, not autrui;
Ouïe! unwilling eyes we open

Edward’s lament-landscapes we see.

Parched Colorado River delta

Flow diverted – raise some herds –

Fish and amphibians find no shelter; 

Plundered profits, pain deferred.

Manufactured western suburbs,

Life floats on dwindling aquifers;

Next door the ancient ghostly remnants

Of cultures faltered, disappeared.

And drought------ no doubt about it

We’re drifting to that turn of things.

What clout .....   to save our offspring ?

 - Cherish each drop that wetting wrings.

Our leaders opt for obfuscation
A short-term outlook is obscene-

A final geologic  e - ra;

Warm welcome to Anthropocene !

And whoa! ….... those emotive

Views captured by Burty-ynsky!
Decry .…..... and why not try

Avoid our man-made destiny ?

(Rit.)
 The news from Earth is disconcerting………….

FEB 20 '24: BINOMIALS (WORD-PAIRS), GRAMMAR LESSON

WORDPLAY 

LISTS OF RELEVANT IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS (expanded from other lists,e.g., Wikipedia "Siamese twins - linguistics".
EDITED: Giorgio Coniglio, March 2017.
SONG LINKS: View the singable version of this wordplay at Giorgio's Ukable Parodies by going to the initial post ...  , and the followup ...

also... betwixt and between

         betwixt and between

American wordplay map: R-E-P-U-B-L-I-C-A-N V-O-T-E-R-S, #1

 

If you have had fun with these verses, you could venture to review the second collection of this type; click HERE for part #2. 

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WEB-EXPLORERS: 

To resume the sequence of daily titillations on our related blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings at the bottom of the page, and check the daily offerings for any month from the start of 2020 until December 2024. 

As of December 2024, there are 1800 unique entries available on the daily blog, displaying individual poems (often illustrated) and wordplay, but also with some photo-collages and parody song-lyrics. Most of their key elements are also presented here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections, such as this one. The "Daily" format also has the advantage of including some song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.

FEB 15, 2024: HERPETOLOGIC (reptilian) verses #2: second slither [6]

A continuation of a previous post on this topic 

   

 Readers who enjoy poetry describing the natural world around them with illustrative images and informative text, might also enjoy these blog-offerings, each a collage of verses on a wider topic...

Verses about Geysers, Sep '18
Verses about Frogs, Jan '19
Verses about Trees, Apr '19
Verses about Reptiles, Jun '19
Verses about Waterfowl, June '19
Verses about Waterfowl (part #2), July '19
Verses about Trees (part #2), Aug '19

Verses about Insects, Sep '19

Verses about Waterfowl (part #3), Apr '20

Verses about Reptiles, (part #2), May '20, as above.

AND, continuing into the future ...

Verses about Waterfowl (part #4 - Loons), Aug '20.

Verses about Waterfowl (part #5), Dec '20. 

The earlier post about reptiles in June 2019 included the following illustrated verses:

        

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio (registered pseudonym) and Dr. GH, April 2019. Today's verses are under review, or have have been finally accepted for web-publication at OEDILF.com, an online humour dictionary that has accumulated over 105,000 carefully edited poems. 

PHOTOS: Unless otherwise noted, embedded photographs were taken with and transferred from Giorgio's cellphone, then formatted using  Powerpoint software. No photographic subjects were reimbursed for participating in this undertaking. 

BACKGROUND:  "herpetology" - the branch of zoology dealing with reptiles and amphibians. Readers should note that snakes have intentionally been given short shrift in this poetic idyll owing to the marked aversion by the editor's life-partner.

  This post is a continuation of the collection of poems 'REPTILES' as displayed on this blog February 15, 2023 (slither #1), and February 15, 2024 (slither #2).

previous poetic posts (Note that captions are available for versions of the poems displayed on "Daily Illustrated Nonsense" since January 2024).

(first slither): amphisbaenians, autotomy, beneficial snakes, broad-headed skinks, brown anoles.

CURRENT CONTENTS (second slither):

Carolina anoles

Crocodilians

Eastern glass lizards

Eviction notice

Fence lizards

Five-lined skinks

See an earlier post for Giorgio's rehash of Ogden Nash's verse (The Purist) about the important differences between crocodiles and alligators.

See an earlier post for Giorgio's rehash of Ogden Nash's verse (The Purist) about the important differences between crocodiles and alligators.

Nature-lovers , academic herpetologists, wordplay enthusiasts, wildlife photographers, Giorgio's relatives, and just everyday folks have united in their demand for more verses on this topic!

So, please follow this link!

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WEB-EXPLORERS: 

To resume your review of the sequence of daily titillations on our related blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings at the bottom of the page, and check the daily offerings for any month from the start of 2020 through the summer of 2026. 

As of March, 2026, there are 2,000 unique entries available on the daily blog, displaying individual poems (often illustrated) and wordplay, but also with some photo-collages and parody song-lyrics. 

Most of these key elements of our work are assembled here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections.

The "Daily" format, a formidable mix of genres has the advantage of including song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.

FEB 10, 2024: True-and-Faux Photos: PORTRAITS of COUPLES, #4 [9]

prior posts (1st group)

domestic turkeys - introduction 

------------

Adam and Eve

armadillos

Aurora and Cephalus

basset hounds

black swans 

black-crowned night herons

black-necked swans 

broad-headed skinks 

bros

prior posts - (2nd group)

Canada geese 

chickens 

dogpark figures 

domestic geese 1(Paris) 

domestic geese 2(Toronto) 

emus 

family - Canada geese

feral domestic ducks 

frogs 

prior posts - (3rd group)

gemsboks

g(i)roomed dogs 

goats

gorillas
gulls (European herring)

Harris hawks 
hippos 
horses
house finches

CURRENT CONTENTS (4th group)

llamas 
loons 

mallard ducks

mounted police 

mute swans

pelicans

pigeons

pigs 

sanderlings

for continuation to the fifth group, follow the link below.

 

We know that you are itching to review more of this photo-portfolio. So, you can do just that by clicking the 5th group HERE.

 

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WEB-EXPLORERS: 

To resume your review of the sequence of daily titillations on our related blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings at the bottom of the page, and check the daily offerings for any month from the start of 2020 until July 2025. 

As of July 20, 2025, there are 2,000 unique entries available on the daily blog, displaying individual poems (often illustrated) and wordplay, but also with some photo-collages and parody song-lyrics. 

Most of these key elements of our work are assembled here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections.

The "Daily" format, a formidable mix of genres has the advantage of including song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.