I love the rainbow in 5 scenes

                              I love the rainbow in 5 scenes

“When there is love in the heart, there are rainbows in the eyes, which cover every black cloud with gorgeous hues.” — Henry Ward Beecher

                                                           Dr Abe V Rotor

1. Rainbow at the Waterfalls

2. "Yellow Spot into Sun"

3. Rainbow Across a River

4. Yes, you can bring down the rainbow - and touch it, too.

5. Rainbow on a Wall Mural

ANNEX - Rainbow comes down to earth in many ways

                                    1. Rainbow at the Waterfalls

“I can see my rainbow calling me through the misty

 breeze of my waterfall." - Unknown

Rainbow at the Waterfalls, by Leo Carlo R Rotor, 13

"I am told when we knock at heaven's gate

St. Peter will ask, Pray, tell me, 

what price have you paid to enter heaven?

I will then have to recall and reflect...

on all the good deeds I have done from birth to death

as well as my sins of omission and commission."

2. "Yellow Spot into Sun"

"Picasso once said that a real artist has a unique talent to transform a yellow spot into sun... a sun shining into the heart, giving warmth and comfort that go with enlightenment, wisdom, faith and hope - for the young generation." -  avr

Rainbow on a Tree by Mishane Chura, 9

"I used to be of the dark

I still am...

But I have come to terms with this fear.

I now leave the light off when I sleep

For I have come to terms with darkness

And my fear of it... "

3. Rainbow Across a River

"Count your rainbows, not your thunderstorms." - Alyssa Knight

Rainbow across the Bamban River, Tarlac

I love the rainbow

because it holds a pot of gold

that glitters in kaleidoscope,

and prism on its huge crown,

where lovely deities play I'm told;

it's reborn when worn and old

into a cathedral in the sky

cherubim sweetly sing in praise, 

humbling the proud and bold;

it guides the lost from the fold

and those searching for heaven -

a rainbow suddenly appears

whenever faith grows cold. ~

4. Yes, you can bring down the rainbow - and touch it, too.  

“Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.” — E.Y. Young

 

Children in the neighborhood delight in making a rainbow through an aquarium as prism.

 You can make one, too, in your home. 

Rainbow - a kaleidoscope of colors in a pattern of seven - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet - that guide man's art in endless combinations.

Rainbow - it builds slowly before our eyes; it comes as twin, or breaks out suddenly  perking up life in its low ebb, and taking out the boredom of living. 

Rainbow - gauge of  weather, reference for travel and trade, source of inspiration of lovers,  bards and writers, subject of the arts, icon of faith and devotion. 

Rainbow - the make-believe subject in children's stories of fairies and spirits; the most sought treasure of grownups -  the proverbial pot of gold. 

Rainbow - ephemeral for which its beauty in heightened, like a rose in the morning, first rain in May, the passing of day and night, and the march of seasons.  

Rainbow - likened to the cycle of life - its birth and death, glory and fall, its simplicity grandeur, its independence and attachment to all things, visible and invisible.

Rainbow - now you see it, now you don't, a puzzle to the old and young in all walks of life, yet seeing it best with a clear mind, pure heart and spirit.

Rainbow - it conquers gloom, sows hope, builds the biggest, the most beautiful and magnificent arch of the world that bestows honor to everyone. 

Rainbow - the cathedral in the sky that brings the faithful of all beliefs together in awe and respect to the Creator, the unifying grace of all mankind.  

Rainbow - too high, too far, too abstract, yet to the children it is near, it is real and true; rainbow the symbol of beauty and hope, it comes when the sky is gloomy and dark. ~

5. Rainbow on a Wall Mural 

"Today's teardrops are tomorrow's rainbows." - Ricky Nelson 

. Rainbow on a Wall Mural by the author, Lagro QC

I painted a wall and brought a rainbow down;

it fell on the grass, over my head its crown;

what my painting lacked, it gloriously filled,

and I, the artist humbled, my pride stilled.

Now I understand how a masterpiece is made,

the Sistine chapel, Berlin wall, Roman pallisade,

these classical works, their secrets long sought -

it's the Creator's expression in man's thought. ~

ANNEX - Rainbow comes down to earth in many ways

Rainbow comes down to earth in many ways - in flowers in spring, leaves in autumn, mountains at sunrise, reflection of lakes, spray of running streams, mirage in deserts, feathers of fowls, and the like.  The rainbow is commonly imitated in man-made structures and designs, and many items of trade and commerce.

Living things like this rainbow fish have captured through evolution the colors and pattern of the rainbow, assuring them of their place in the living world. Internet photo  

Cryptobotany: The tree that rose from a broken jar

Cryptobotany* 

 The tree that rose from a broken jar   

Artwork by Dr Abe V Rotor

If the Phoenix bird a cryptid, so with the kapre

     in the balete in children's book;

Out of a broken jar emerges an reptile-like tree,

     with menacing poise and look.

They have stood sentinel in the forest and plain,

     guardian against man's unending

greed and folly for material wealth, honor, fame - 

     telling him the cause of his suffering. **

Top view of  a cryptid tree  

 

Back and front view of the cryptid tree

* Cryptobotany or cryptophytology is a field related to cryptozoology, dedicated to the study and search for formally undescribed plants. Due to their nature, cryptid plants are far less common than cryptid animals: an animal is mobile and will not remain in the same spot for long, whilst a plant is immobile, and therefore likely to be formally documented and described after only a single encounter. (Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology, Internet)

** Beliefs in the spirits have helped preserve Nature against man's destructive hands as he pursued a "progressive and enlightened culture." The greatest destruction of the environment was in the last 200 years, the impact of which is most felt in our postmodern world today.   

A Cathedral of Birds (San Vicente Ilocos Sur Series)

San Vicente Ilocos Sur Series

A Cathedral of Birds

"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 the memory of Mr and Mrs Cris and Ella 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, creaking, 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. ~     
    

   Painting as it appears with an antique narra frame. ~ 

CHILDHOOD LIVES ON: 1. Through the mist of Time; 2. Angling - Sport in Silence; 3. Waterfalls in My Childhood

CHILDHOOD LIVES ON

"Life is the childhood of our immortality."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Paintings and verses by Dr Abe V Rotor 

1. Through the Mist of Time 

The childhood in us throbs, throbs with the sweet music of time. 

Through the mist of time in acrylic AV Rotor

 

Through the mist we see children

Years back with many years lost;

Yet much is gained in memory

That holds stories untold.

Who is fishing there? Ahoy!

Only the tingling chime answers;

The childhood in us throbs, throbs

With the sweet music of time. ~

2. Angling - Sport in Silence

Fishing, painting in oil by AVRotor 

Silence the test of nerve and steel,

as calm combs the water;

beneath stealth the fish, be still,

and wish the rod to quiver.

When hours are long and hard to bear

and heaven dull and gray;

dreams long delayed are in slumber,

go fishing the whole day.

For no sport more than fishing  brings  

freedom from cares and worries;

 tolls the bell for thee or joy it rings,

fishing in silence and peace. ~

Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Miss Grace Velasco 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday

3. Waterfalls in My Childhood

Painting by Dr Abe V Rotor

On display at the Living with Nature Center

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

"I have returned in old age and stood

before my waterfalls to pay homage

with paintbrush and canvas.  Behold!

I painted a scene gentle with age. "

Waterfalls in My Childhood, in acrylic AV Rotor 2026

Waterfalls are nature's living fortress,

their massive walls rise to the sky, 

symbol of strength and daring, and I,

I grew up a disciple as time went by.

Down their cascading waters I rode,

along the river that meets the sea,

to a world strange, unknown, and I,

I looked back, in spite of being free. 

Time and place combine into fate,

into a life travelled but once only, 

a world incognito, infinitum, and I, 

I crossed my Rubicon, a long story.

I have returned in old age and stood

before my waterfalls to pay homage

with paintbrush and canvas. Behold!

I painted a scene gentle with age. ~

“You don’t have the power to make rainbows or waterfalls, sunsets or roses, but you do have the power to bless people by your words and smiles. You carry within you the power to make the world better.” - Sharon G. Larsen

Where have all the wildlife gone?

 Where have all the wildlife gone?

Dr Abe V Rotor

Asian tiger, Zoobic, Subic Zambales

I laid down my fishing rod a long time ago,
    and I haven't fired a shot since then, too,
for the wild has shrunk, the places I used to go -
    the shores and forests - now I hardly know.

Where have all the wildlife gone? I think I know;
    I hiked o'er the hill for a bundle of wood,
waded downstream to complete my favored stew,
    progress was unheard of, and life was good.

Is progress taming the wild and farming the seas,
    building golf range on grasslands, houses on fields,
ranches, plantations of crops and forest trees -
    or progress an accident of growing needs?

When Nature becomes spent and overpowered,
    pushed by growing affluence and number,
the wild leaves the world in waste and disorder,
    and a lesson for us all to remember.~

Don't Say Goodbye to the Violin (Endangered Musical Instrument)

  Don't Say Goodbye to the Violin

Annex 1 - A List of Violin Pieces & their Composers

Annex 2 - The Red Violin: Synopsis

                                                         Dr Abe V Rotor

A copy of Stradivarius violin, retired.  

                                          French violin fell into pieces as a result of very old age.  

 

 German violin damaged by powder post beetle, so with its carrying case.  

NOTE: I was able to restore these violins which I still play on them today. Thanks to my mentors in my younger years: Maestro Anselmo Pelayre, Maestro Evaristo Bolante, Uncle Mariano Navarrete, the Rosal brothers: Charito, Elias and Antonio; and contemporary violinist Candido Raquepo. 

Don't Say Goodbye to the Violin

Good bye, violin, you have done well your part;

     your master has long been dead,

you're an orphan now bypassed by modernity,

     and praised in your dying bed.

One virtuoso can play for millions in cyberspace,

     faithful enough to the old school;

the avant-garde musician in many versions dare

     the fine art, we may call him a fool.

Where is Elgar, Schubert, Ravel, Rachmaninoff?

     Baroque, Romanesque, Gothic?

If the masters live forever in their masterpieces,

     why are the youth shy and meek?

Music and noise, they bind, distinction is nil,

     fashion, dance, antics deceive

the senses like Picasso's and Dali's art,

     and the soulful violin to grieve.

I see a young child reach for the keyboard,

     his tender fingers full of promise,

a maestro by his side, survivor of a storm

     returning the music of peace.

                          A List of  Violin Pieces & their Composers

Virtuoso and popular compositions for the beginner and advanced violinist. 
Search on the Internet, listen to the compositions on YouTube, download if possible.  Search for many more compositions for the violin. You can be a violinist. 

1. Bach Chaconne
2. Beethoven Kreutzer Sonata
3. Paganini Caprice No. 1
4. Wieniawski Polonaise No. 1
5. Ysaye Sonata No. 8
6. Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
7. Sibelius Violin Concerto
8. Glazunov Violin Concerto
9. Elgar Violin Concerto
10. Shostakovich Violin Concerto
11. Monti Csardas
12. Brandenburg Concertos, J.S. Bach
13. D Minor Double Concerto, J. S. Bach
14. Four Seasons, Vivaldi
15. Nimrod, Elgar
16. Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Mozart
17. Messiah, Handel
18. Watermusic, Handel
19. Pachelbel Canon
20. Second mazurka / Godard –
21. Elegie / Massenet –
22. Salut d'Amour / Elgar –
23. Gipsy dance / Wier –
24. Andante religioso / Thomé –
25. My heart at thy sweet voice / Saint-Saens (Samson and Delilah)–
26. Chaconne / Durand (Op.62)
27. Ballade romantique / Jaggi –
28. Liebestraum / Liszt (S.541)
29. Poupee valsante / Poldini –
30. Murmuring zephyr / Jensen –
31. An den frühling / Grieg –
32. Grande valse brillante / Chopin –
33. Berceuse / Ilyinski (Op.13)
34. Melancolie / Wier –
35. Rain, the / Bohm
36. Fountain, the / Bohm (Op.221)
37. Ave Maria, Franz Schubert
38. Flight of the Bumblebee, Jascha Heifetz / Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
39. Liebesfreud, Fritz Kreisler
40. Andante and Variations for violin and piano, Gioachino Rossini
41. Caprice No. 24 in A minor, Op. 1/24 Niccolò Paganini
42. Humoreske, Antonin Dvorák

From MovieWeb

The Red Violin: Synopsis

THE RED VIOLIN chronicles the journey of a legendary musical instrument -- a violin famous for its unusual reddish hue. Placed on the auction block in modern-day Montreal, after traveling around the globe for over three-hundred years, the violin comes to the attention of expert CHARLES MORRITZ (Samuel L. Jackson,) who mounts an investigation to authenticate the enigmatic instrument and establish its true worth.

Created by seventeenth-century Italian master violin-maker NICOLO BUSSOTTI (Carlo Cecchi) as a gift for his unborn son, the violin becomes the embodiment of Bussotti's grief when his beloved wife, ANNA (Irene Grazioli,) and his infant die in childbirth. Mysteriously, CESCA, the family's housekeeper and a reader of Tarot cards, has predicted a long and adventure-filled life for Anna, coupling her fate to the dramatic fate of the Red Violin.

From this moment on, the violin embarks on a journey through time, becoming the emotional, spiritual, and intellectual centerpiece of the lives of its various owners. As the Tarot cards predict the future "life" of the violin -- describing a death, an ocean journey, a trial, and other events that come to pass -- Morritz and his team of twentieth-century experts, scientists, and musicologists at the auction house, including EVAN WILLIAMS (Don McKellar,) use their skills and instruments to probe the secrets of the violin's past, searching for the key to its perfect acoustics and its unusual red finish. The answers can be found in the Red Violin's tumultuous history.

After Anna's death, the Red Violin leaves Italy, resurfacing in an Austrian monastery famed for its young orchestra. There, it is played by generations of orphans until it comes into the hands of six-year-old child prodigy KASPER WEISS (Christoph Koncz) in 1792. Realizing that the boy has an exceptional talent, the monks call in French music master GEORGES POUSSIN (Jean-Luc Bideau) to launch Kasper's career. The maestro recognizes the frail boy's musical potential and determines to find a patron to support him. But Poussin disapproves of Kasper's emotional dependency on the violin -- the lonely orphan even sleeps with his instrument -- and tries to separate them. As a result, Kasper becomes ill, dying at the very moment his royal audition begins.

The Red Violin is buried with Kasper, but grave-robbers steal the magnificent instrument and it ends up in the hands of nomadic gypsies. In England in 1893, the Red Violin captures the attention of FREDERICK POPE (Jason Flemyng) a Byronic violinist who enthralls audiences with his flamboyantly romantic musical style. Pope is equally passionate in his personal life. His affair with novelist VICTORIA BYRD (Greta Scacchi) becomes charged with eroticism when the Red Violin enters their lives, and sexual fulfillment and musical inspiration become one. When Victoria realizes that the Red Violin has become her rival -- a seductress who holds Pope in her power -- she tries to destroy it.

Pope's Oriental manservant rescues the Red Violin and transports it to his native Shanghai, where he sells the instrument to a pawnbroker. It languishes unnoticed in the shop for decades until a mother buys it for her young daughter XIANG PEI. Several years later, in 1965, Xiang Pei (Sylvia Chang,) now a grown woman, finds herself at the center of the maelstrom of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. A party official, she is expected to support the denunciation of a music teacher who is chastised for teaching a useless western instrument -- namely, the violin. Xiang Pei takes a chance and speaks up on behalf of the violinist, saving him from punishment. But she realizes that she must dispose of her own "corruption," the Red Violin she has owned since childhood. Rather than cast her violin to the flames, Xiang Pei locates the music teacher and implores him to take the instrument into hiding. Though aware of the risk, he hides the Red Violin in his attic, amongst dozens of other western instruments he has collected for safekeeping.

The Red Violin remains in its hiding place until the present. The Cultural Revolution long over, Chinese authorities realize the value of the music teacher's collection and decide to send the instruments to an auction house in Montreal. While other experts focus on a potential Stradivarius in the collection, New York based Charles Morritz, as tough as he is brilliant, concentrates on the beaten and battered Red Violin, conducting tests to determine if the instrument might be the lost 17th century Bussotti masterpiece. Intrigued by the violin's unusual color, Morritz sends samples of its unique red varnish for analysis.

Once Morritz establishes that the unusually-colored instrument is in fact the long-lost Red Violin, eager bidders come from all over the world to participate in the auction. They include modern-day trustees of the Austrian Monastery that raised -- and buried -- Kasper Weiss, a representative of the Frederick Pope Institute, and a Chinese businessman who knew Xiang Pei when he was a child. The Red Violin has a lasting hold on all the lives it has touched. And its newest conquest is Charles Momitz: the Red Violin has become his obsession.

Once Morritz' investigation leads him to the shocking and ultimately inspirational secret of the Red Violin, he alone understands its true value, a value that has nothing to do with money. He resolves that the violin will fulfill its original destiny -- to pass from father to child as an enduring symbol of love and the relationship between art and life. With the help of Evan Williams, Morritz substitutes a convincing fake for the precious Red Violin, hides the original under his coat, and leaves the auction to return to New York. Morritz has a different and more worthy plan for the instrument. He will present it to his child as a legacy of love, just as Bussotti hoped to do when he first created the magnificent Red Violin. Acknowledgement: MovieWeb Internet, Wikipedia, The Red Violin Movie--------------------------------------
The Red Violin touched the lives of many people, both the good and the bad; for the latter, the greedy and obsessed.  Many of them changed, others have yet to learn. I hope they will.  The Red Violin is a curse to those who defy true goodness. Its ending begins a cycle. And perhaps the story repeats itself if man does not reform.  
Similar plots are found in John Steinbeck's The Pearl, also in The Moon Stone where a precious thing becomes a curse - and in many true-to-life stories. - AVRotor  

Spirituality with Nature: Give Me the Sky

 Spirituality with Nature: Give Me the Sky

Give me the sky symbolizes more than freedom, the realization of life's meaning, and beauty of living, humility and reverence. It reminds man of his role as guardian of creation.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Skyview through the roof of Callao Cave, Peñablanca, Cagayan

Cirrus -stratus cloud formation under a tree

Give me the sky and I'll conquer darkness,

even only a shaft through the rock;

Give me the sky and I will follow the sun

from morn to evening and back.

Give me the sky and I'll watch the moon

grow full and old and reborn;

Give me the sky and I'll chart the stars,

the future and coming storm.

Give me the sky and I will ask the clouds

to fall into rain and the fields green;

Give me the sky to greet the birds in flight,

where they go, where they've been.

Give me the sky and I'll soar into space

beyond the limits of the earth;

Give me the sky and I'll see from there

the magnificent place of my birth.

Give me the sky and I'll keep it clean -

the river, the lake and stream;

Give me the sky and I'll fly the biggest kite

to lead a child to his dream.

Give me the sky, and lead my spirit

from the earth to far beyond;

Give me the sky that I may know You `

through the goodness of Your Son. ~