A Cathedral of Birds (San Vicente Ilocos Sur Series)

"Rejoice in the cathedral of birds always filled with songs, radiant, and universal for all creatures, big and small, in harmony of peace, beauty and bounty, redeeming a Lost Paradise in our time." - avr

Dedicated to Mr and Mrs Cris and Elea Pedro, on their 50th Wedding Anniversary, December 16, 2018

Painting and Poem by Dr Abe V Rotor

Birds' Sanctuary in acrylic (19" x 17") by AV Rotor 2017

Hush! Listen to the birds on the treetops and in the blue sky, the morning sun streaming through the Parthenon of trees, and layers of foliage, a huge building they make, holy and sacred;

A chorale of a hundred singers, chirping, cooing, hissing, tweeting, creeking, rasping, in precise sounds of string, percussion and wind instruments Nature endowed them, and copied by man;

Accompaniments dwarf full orchestration, wind passing through the leaves, lullaby in an Afton stream, cantabile of saplings and reeds, flapping of wings, fiddling of crickets, pelting rhythm of raindrops;

Sonorous call of the hornbill is bass, sweet call of birdlings for their mother the violin, cheerful sparrows and parakeets accompanies Gavotte and Tinikling, hooting owl like muffled horn and bassoon;

Rising in the midst of performance come the shrill of the raven, interspersed by the nightingale's clear and happy tune, whistling robins, chattering monkeys, croaking frogs, buzzing flies, clicking beetles;

Day and night, season after season, the forest is alive with Nature's music, save briefly the coming of storm when the players take to their shelters, surrendering to the rage and fury of the elements;

Calm reigns after tempest, the ensemble returns, comes the triumphal band, trees grow back their crowns, termites and beetles bury the dead, life anew the theme of Nature's composition;

Wonder if the sanctuary is destroyed by giant machines and man's greed, the watershed turned to desert, clouds sown with toxic gases, the ambiance of balance and peace disturbed by climate change;

Rejoice if man and nature come into treaty with terms laid down since creation, man humbled as a transient visitor on his way to a "heaven" - earning it while on earth in reverence, piety and dignity;

Rejoice in the cathedral of birds always filled with songs, radiant, and universal for all creatures big and small, in harmony, peace, beauty and bounty, redeeming a Lost Paradise in our time. ~