March 10, 2019

"Beware the Ides of March"


"Beware the Ides of March"A warning from a soothsayer to Shakespeare's Julius Caesar on his impending death.


As we move closer toward the Ides (middle) of March it’s time to put a finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing.


Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I but 
when the trees bow down their heads, the wind is passing by." 
Christina Rossetti, 1872

Vessel #35—First Cause           Vessel # 59—Shift                      Yesnaby Cliffs, Orkney Islands, Scotland

In scientific terms wind is formed as hot air rises and cooler air moves in to fill the void. With the ability to pick up speed and form a vortex, wind is able to become a swirling tornado or a 
devastating hurricane*.

In political terms rhetoric rises as reason drifts and hot air fills the void—Red vs. Blue, Honesty vs. Deceit, Freedom vs. Order.

Where will the tempest shift next?


    Kaze no Iro
    the color of wind
     turns cobalt under the sea
      green fish kiss the sky
             
     From Unhinged, A Haiku Tsunami by Jeff Key


Vessel # 59—Shift                                                         Vessel # 35—First Cause 
Wood, 105" x 48" x 12"                                             Wood & Flax, 72" x 50" x 10"  

                                                                                                               
• The March 2019 tornado in Alabama reached wind speeds of 170 mph (EF-4 on the Tornado Scale) with a path 24 miles long. It killed 24 people.
• Typhoon Wutip, formed in February near Guam, became the first Category 5 storm ever recorded in the month of February in the Northern Hemisphere with winds reaching 180 mph.

*Tornados are wind masses that form over land, hurricanes form over oceans in the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific. The same oceanic wind mass is called a typhoon in the Northwest Pacific and a cyclone in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean.