Poem: "These Boundless Solitudes"
Mar. 16th, 2021 01:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem came out of the March 2, 2021 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by chanter1944. It also fills the "Garlic - Courage and Strength" square in my 2-1-21 "The Language of Flowers" card for the Valentine Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette.
"These Boundless Solitudes"
Alberto Santos-Dumont
began his career in aviation
with lighter-than-air craft.
His first forays with balloons
enchanted him as he drifted
high over the landscape.
Villages and woods,
meadows and chateaux,
passed across the scene
spreading below him.
Through the depths
of the upper air, he
could hear nothing
but the faint whistle
of locomotives and
the barking of dogs
The human voice
could not reach into
these boundless solitudes.
As much as Alberto enjoyed
drifting with the wind, he wanted
to see more of the world, so he
started to explore dirigibles,
which could be steered.
He learned how to build,
short, sturdy airships and
long, lean ones for racing.
On October 19, 1901 he won
the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize
for a flight rounding the Eiffel Tower.
Ever chasing more control and
speed, Alberto then ventured
into heavier-than-air craft.
He built fixed-wing airplanes
and even a helicopter.
The rising militarism
in Europe bothered
Alberto, though, and
he fretted endlessly
over what he could
possibly do about it.
Then he recalled
the sense of peace
that he felt in the air.
Surely if more people
could feel that, and see
from above how the world
was one, without borders,
then they would not be
so inclined to wage war.
So in 1908 he began working
with Adolphe Clément's company
Clement-Bayard to mass-produce
the Demoiselle No 19. In 1909, they
started making sales, and it became
the world's first series production aircraft.
.
Now more people could soar above
the Earth and experience the same delights.
However, Alberto soon learned that
flying in an airplane did not produce
exactly the same sensations as
flying in a balloon could do.
The noisy engine undermined
the sense of peace and belonging.
So he sold Adolphe the rights
to the Demoiselle No 19 and
set to making balloons instead.
Alberto reached out to people
in the aviation community
across different countries.
He met with Gabriel Voisin
in France, Miloš Vasić in Serbia,
and his hero Graf von Zeppelin
in Germany, going aloft with them
and talking about what a tragedy
it would be if all that beautiful land
below should be laid waste by war.
"I could not bear the thought that
my creation, the height of my dreams,
would allow brothers to kill brothers,"
Alberto told them. "Have we not
learned to fly like angels? Then we
must learn to act like angels, too,
lest God strike us from the heavens
for our arrogance, as he did in Babel."
They were not won over at once,
of course, but Alberto could see
that they were beginning to rethink
some of their former ideas as they
gazed down on corduroy fields and
cableknit forests of peaceful green.
He spent increasing time and effort
taking more and more people aloft,
talking to them about peace and
serenity and becoming better angels.
He even turned his eyes to the heavens
and took up astronomy as a hobby,
enthusing over how grand it would be
if humans could fly beyond the sky.
In 1911, the French government --
noting his German-made telescopes
and his foreign accent -- accused
Alberto of spying for the Germans.
He replied in a huff, "I am not spying
for anyone! Quite the opposite, I am
trying to convince everyone to desist
behaving as if they have nothing in
common, when we are all humans
sharing God's great Creation."
At that, Alberto hauled
the protesting Frenchmen
into his balloon and took them
high over the countryside.
When one of them would not
stop going on and on about war,
Alberto grabbed him by the scruff
of the neck and dragged him to
the edge of the basket, bending him
over the blue-and-gold coast rippling
below like so much lace, vineyards
rising above it in folds of velvet.
"Look at that, you son of a bitch,"
Alberto said. "How can you believe
that you have any right to fight over it?
How can you dare to destroy what God
in His glory has made for all to share?"
And the warmongers looked away
in shame, because they were all
good Christian men who had
bowed their heads at Notre-Dame,
even if they were a bit too tempted
by the sin of Wrath these days.
After that, the government
did not trouble him anymore.
A few months later, though,
a letter came asking him if he
thought that flying might ease
a condition called 'soldier's heart'
in men who had served in skirmishes
and subsequently suffered symptoms
that rendered them unfit for duty.
Alberto wrote back recommending
that they go up in balloons, but not
motorized aircraft, and contemplate
the peaceful unity of the Earth such as
philosophers in the universities had begun
to do, but in any case this was unlikely
to work if the men remained at war.
These predictions proved correct,
and ballooning became popular
as a treatment for soldier's heart.
It would not return damaged men
to combat readiness, but it could
assist them in recovering enough
to become productive citizens again,
albeit necessarily in quiet occupations.
To Alberto's immense relief, his hard work
paid off, and the skirmishes remained
merely that, without ever growing into
the all-out war that everyone feared.
He continued to invent new designs
for balloons, dirigibles, and airplanes,
often speaking at universities, both in
engineering and philosophy departments.
The two even came together in support of
something they called 'the overview effect,'
the fancy name for that peaceful unity
which came from viewing the world aloft,
and Alberto so hoped to promote.
His young protégés did more and more
of the construction, although Alberto
kept working until his health broke.
At that time, he was living in
Switzerland, collaborating with
Walter Mittelholzer in aviation
and aerial photography through
Ad Astra Aero, helping people find
peace through beautiful pictures.
Despite his doctor's efforts, Alberto
had to admit it was time to retire.
In 1931 his nephew traveled
to Switzerland and took
Alberto back to Brazil.
Increasingly bedridden,
Alberto still spent his days
drafting new designs, now
for helicopter chairs and
personalized dirigibles of
questionable advisability.
He made it another decade
before his body finally gave out,
and per his request, his ashes
were scattered on the wind.
He was remembered for
his courage and strength
in the face of adversity, and
for teaching humanity that
the Earth was truly one.
It would be a hundred years
before the hoverchair became
a reality, but everyone would
credit Alberto Santos-Dumont
with inventing it anyway.
* * *
Notes:
"Villages and woods, meadows and chateaux, pass across the moving scene, out of which the whistling of locomotives throws sharp notes. These faint, piercing sounds, together with the yelping and barking of dogs, are the only noises that reach one through the depths of the upper air. The human voice cannot mount up into these boundless solitudes. Human beings look like ants along the white lines that are highways; and the rows of houses look like children's playthings."
-- Alberto Santos-Dumont
Alberto Santos-Dumont was a Brazilian aviator and inventor, who worked both in light-than-air and heavier-than-air craft.
Militarism rose in Europe in the late 1800s to early 1900s. This fed into the causes of World War I.
France played a key role in developing aviation as an industry.
Miloš Vasić was an important Serbian officer interested in aviation.
Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin supported airship development.
"I never thought that my creation, would allow brothers to kill brothers."
-- Alberto Santos-Dumont
(after seeing his invention being used in war, The Airplane)
Seeing Earth from space changes you – and you don’t even have to leave the planet
People who have seen Earth from space report a “cognitive shift in awareness”. Space philosopher, Frank White, calls this “the overview effect”. It is often experienced as a profound feeling of awe and interconnection, and a renewed sense of responsibility for taking care of the environment.
It’s important to explore and understand the mental health benefits of space flight not only to extend our knowledge of how to improve psychological well-being on space missions, but also to see if we can use positive aspects of this experience back on Earth.
“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.”
― Edgar Mitchell
Notre-Dame de Paris is a famous cathedral.
The seven deadly sins include Wrath.
Soldier's heart is an old term for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Walter Mittelholzer pioneered aviation and aerial photography.
chanter1944. It also fills the "Garlic - Courage and Strength" square in my 2-1-21 "The Language of Flowers" card for the Valentine Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. "These Boundless Solitudes"
Alberto Santos-Dumont
began his career in aviation
with lighter-than-air craft.
His first forays with balloons
enchanted him as he drifted
high over the landscape.
Villages and woods,
meadows and chateaux,
passed across the scene
spreading below him.
Through the depths
of the upper air, he
could hear nothing
but the faint whistle
of locomotives and
the barking of dogs
The human voice
could not reach into
these boundless solitudes.
As much as Alberto enjoyed
drifting with the wind, he wanted
to see more of the world, so he
started to explore dirigibles,
which could be steered.
He learned how to build,
short, sturdy airships and
long, lean ones for racing.
On October 19, 1901 he won
the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize
for a flight rounding the Eiffel Tower.
Ever chasing more control and
speed, Alberto then ventured
into heavier-than-air craft.
He built fixed-wing airplanes
and even a helicopter.
The rising militarism
in Europe bothered
Alberto, though, and
he fretted endlessly
over what he could
possibly do about it.
Then he recalled
the sense of peace
that he felt in the air.
Surely if more people
could feel that, and see
from above how the world
was one, without borders,
then they would not be
so inclined to wage war.
So in 1908 he began working
with Adolphe Clément's company
Clement-Bayard to mass-produce
the Demoiselle No 19. In 1909, they
started making sales, and it became
the world's first series production aircraft.
.
Now more people could soar above
the Earth and experience the same delights.
However, Alberto soon learned that
flying in an airplane did not produce
exactly the same sensations as
flying in a balloon could do.
The noisy engine undermined
the sense of peace and belonging.
So he sold Adolphe the rights
to the Demoiselle No 19 and
set to making balloons instead.
Alberto reached out to people
in the aviation community
across different countries.
He met with Gabriel Voisin
in France, Miloš Vasić in Serbia,
and his hero Graf von Zeppelin
in Germany, going aloft with them
and talking about what a tragedy
it would be if all that beautiful land
below should be laid waste by war.
"I could not bear the thought that
my creation, the height of my dreams,
would allow brothers to kill brothers,"
Alberto told them. "Have we not
learned to fly like angels? Then we
must learn to act like angels, too,
lest God strike us from the heavens
for our arrogance, as he did in Babel."
They were not won over at once,
of course, but Alberto could see
that they were beginning to rethink
some of their former ideas as they
gazed down on corduroy fields and
cableknit forests of peaceful green.
He spent increasing time and effort
taking more and more people aloft,
talking to them about peace and
serenity and becoming better angels.
He even turned his eyes to the heavens
and took up astronomy as a hobby,
enthusing over how grand it would be
if humans could fly beyond the sky.
In 1911, the French government --
noting his German-made telescopes
and his foreign accent -- accused
Alberto of spying for the Germans.
He replied in a huff, "I am not spying
for anyone! Quite the opposite, I am
trying to convince everyone to desist
behaving as if they have nothing in
common, when we are all humans
sharing God's great Creation."
At that, Alberto hauled
the protesting Frenchmen
into his balloon and took them
high over the countryside.
When one of them would not
stop going on and on about war,
Alberto grabbed him by the scruff
of the neck and dragged him to
the edge of the basket, bending him
over the blue-and-gold coast rippling
below like so much lace, vineyards
rising above it in folds of velvet.
"Look at that, you son of a bitch,"
Alberto said. "How can you believe
that you have any right to fight over it?
How can you dare to destroy what God
in His glory has made for all to share?"
And the warmongers looked away
in shame, because they were all
good Christian men who had
bowed their heads at Notre-Dame,
even if they were a bit too tempted
by the sin of Wrath these days.
After that, the government
did not trouble him anymore.
A few months later, though,
a letter came asking him if he
thought that flying might ease
a condition called 'soldier's heart'
in men who had served in skirmishes
and subsequently suffered symptoms
that rendered them unfit for duty.
Alberto wrote back recommending
that they go up in balloons, but not
motorized aircraft, and contemplate
the peaceful unity of the Earth such as
philosophers in the universities had begun
to do, but in any case this was unlikely
to work if the men remained at war.
These predictions proved correct,
and ballooning became popular
as a treatment for soldier's heart.
It would not return damaged men
to combat readiness, but it could
assist them in recovering enough
to become productive citizens again,
albeit necessarily in quiet occupations.
To Alberto's immense relief, his hard work
paid off, and the skirmishes remained
merely that, without ever growing into
the all-out war that everyone feared.
He continued to invent new designs
for balloons, dirigibles, and airplanes,
often speaking at universities, both in
engineering and philosophy departments.
The two even came together in support of
something they called 'the overview effect,'
the fancy name for that peaceful unity
which came from viewing the world aloft,
and Alberto so hoped to promote.
His young protégés did more and more
of the construction, although Alberto
kept working until his health broke.
At that time, he was living in
Switzerland, collaborating with
Walter Mittelholzer in aviation
and aerial photography through
Ad Astra Aero, helping people find
peace through beautiful pictures.
Despite his doctor's efforts, Alberto
had to admit it was time to retire.
In 1931 his nephew traveled
to Switzerland and took
Alberto back to Brazil.
Increasingly bedridden,
Alberto still spent his days
drafting new designs, now
for helicopter chairs and
personalized dirigibles of
questionable advisability.
He made it another decade
before his body finally gave out,
and per his request, his ashes
were scattered on the wind.
He was remembered for
his courage and strength
in the face of adversity, and
for teaching humanity that
the Earth was truly one.
It would be a hundred years
before the hoverchair became
a reality, but everyone would
credit Alberto Santos-Dumont
with inventing it anyway.
* * *
Notes:
"Villages and woods, meadows and chateaux, pass across the moving scene, out of which the whistling of locomotives throws sharp notes. These faint, piercing sounds, together with the yelping and barking of dogs, are the only noises that reach one through the depths of the upper air. The human voice cannot mount up into these boundless solitudes. Human beings look like ants along the white lines that are highways; and the rows of houses look like children's playthings."
-- Alberto Santos-Dumont
Alberto Santos-Dumont was a Brazilian aviator and inventor, who worked both in light-than-air and heavier-than-air craft.
Militarism rose in Europe in the late 1800s to early 1900s. This fed into the causes of World War I.
France played a key role in developing aviation as an industry.
Miloš Vasić was an important Serbian officer interested in aviation.
Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin supported airship development.
"I never thought that my creation, would allow brothers to kill brothers."
-- Alberto Santos-Dumont
(after seeing his invention being used in war, The Airplane)
Seeing Earth from space changes you – and you don’t even have to leave the planet
People who have seen Earth from space report a “cognitive shift in awareness”. Space philosopher, Frank White, calls this “the overview effect”. It is often experienced as a profound feeling of awe and interconnection, and a renewed sense of responsibility for taking care of the environment.
It’s important to explore and understand the mental health benefits of space flight not only to extend our knowledge of how to improve psychological well-being on space missions, but also to see if we can use positive aspects of this experience back on Earth.
“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.”
― Edgar Mitchell
Notre-Dame de Paris is a famous cathedral.
The seven deadly sins include Wrath.
Soldier's heart is an old term for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Walter Mittelholzer pioneered aviation and aerial photography.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-03-16 02:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-03-16 03:00 pm (UTC)I'm still baffled and bemused over the whole spying for the Germans situation. My biased self pictures Santos-Dumont's reaction: "*Excuse me*? Ceu brasileiro!" Said in an accent that makes it quite obvious that he's telling the truth twice over.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-03-16 03:16 pm (UTC)Hm. Ballooning as a PTSD treatment.... Interesting.
Also, our intrepid Frenchman was responsible for the popularity of the wristwatch. It was a bad idea to mount a clock in early aeroplanes; the vibration was too much. A pocket watch meant taking hands off controls. So his friend Cartier made him a small clock on a leather strap.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-03-16 11:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-03-17 12:07 am (UTC)Yes ...
Date: 2021-03-18 06:15 am (UTC)