Looking for an illustrator...
Jan. 30th, 2006 12:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhyllMy delightful mathematician friend sent me a poem, and he mentioned that he was looking for someone to illustrate it so that it could become a children's book. I thought some of you may be interested.
A dinosaur named Obadiah
walked among the swamps and marshes.
Ferny trees that barred his passage
fell beneath his mighty footsteps,
as he trod them down unnoticed,
looking for a mighty wizard.
Smells of magic in the river
led him to the Shouting Water,
where the streams from hills and mountains
joined to fall from cliffs, like thunder.
Twice as tall as Obadiah,
filled with rainbows by the sunlight,
Shouting Water roared and grumbled.
There he walked against the waters,
wading in the narrow valley
cut in rock by Shouting Water.
Great and heavy, Obadiah
stood unshifted by the water,
where a lesser beast would perish,
smashed on rocks, or lost for ever.
In the wild and foaming river,
there he drank the living water,
let its magic fill his body.
There he stood and asked his question.
"Shouting Water, mighty wizard,
will you work for me a magic?"
In the roaring of the water
came a sound like thunder singing.
"Dinosaur named Obadiah,
walking like a moving mountain,
speaking like the clash of battle,
how can dinosaurs need magic?"
Obadiah stood and rumbled,
"In a dream I saw a wonder.
All the earth, spread out below me,
glowed in green and brown and yellow.
Sunlight lit blue streams and oceans,
shining like the sky around me.
Shouting Water, mighty wizard,
teach a dinosaur to fly!"
"If I could," sang Shouting Water,
"I would teach you very gladly,
but a wizard lives by limits.
All my magic is in falling,
shaping cliffs and carving valleys.
You must find another wizard."
Evening fell while Obadiah
wandered in the mountain passes,
where the rocks are tall and heavy,
looking for a mighty wizard.
Smells of magic in the river
led him up and up a mountain,
till he found himself the highest
any dinosaur had clambered,
where the rock was dry and empty.
All the earth, spread out below him,
glowed in shades of black and silver.
Moonlight lit the distant ocean,
shining like the Moon above him.
There he stood and asked his question.
"Moon above me, mighty wizard,
will you work for me a magic?"
In the quiet of the moonlight
came a sound like silver dreaming.
"Dinosaur named Obadiah,
walking like a moving mountain,
speaking like the clash of battle,
how can dinosaurs need magic?"
Obadiah stood and rumbled,
"In a dream I saw a wonder.
All the earth, spread out below me,
glowed in green and brown and yellow.
Sunlight lit blue streams and oceans,
shining like the sky around me.
Moon above me, mighty wizard,
teach a dinosaur to fly!"
"If I could," sang beams of moonlight,
"I would teach you very gladly,
but a wizard lives by limits.
All my magic is in falling,
like a heavy stone thrown sideways.
As I bend my falling downward,
Earth below me bends her surface.
You can see, spread out before you,
how her shining plains curve downward.
Bending round I fall to chase them,
never getting any nearer,
find myself just one month later
falling through the place I started,
falling round and round for ever.
If you dream of flying freely,
flying up and down and landing,
you must find another wizard."
In the morning, Obadiah
walked among the mossy valleys.
Dinosaurs were all around him.
Some were almost big as he was,
some like boulders, some like pebbles,
all in awe of Obadiah.
Obadiah thought of wonders
as he moved among his kindred,
looking for a mighty wizard.
Smells of magic from above him
led him slowly to look upward.
In the sky (with wings like leather
featherless between her fingers)
moved the form of Pterodactyl,
first among the flying creatures.
Robins, eagles, crows and sparrows
are the children of the children,
many times the great-grandchildren,
of the eggs of Pterodactyl.
Obadiah watched her settle
on a hill of orange sandstone,
skin alight with black and crimson
near the level of his shoulders.
There he stood and asked his question.
"Pterodactyl, mighty wizard,
will you work for me a magic?"
In the rustle of the morning
came a sound like iron scraping.
"Dinosaur named Obadiah,
walking like a moving mountain,
speaking like the clash of battle,
how can dinosaurs need magic?"
Obadiah stood and rumbled,
"In a dream I saw a wonder.
All the earth, spread out below me,
glowed in green and brown and yellow.
Sunlight lit blue streams and oceans,
shining like the sky around me.
Pterodactyl, mighty wizard,
teach a dinosaur to fly!"
"If I could," cawed Pterodactyl,
"I would teach you very gladly,
but a wizard lives by limits.
I am small and shaped for flying.
Since my mother's mother started,
we have learned the rules that bind it.
Maybe on another planet,
where the air is thick as water,
or the weight of things is tiny,
creatures large as Obadiah
grow great wings as wide as rivers,
which can fly them over mountains.
But on Earth there is no muscle
that can move a wing so mighty
it can carry Obadiah.
Tell me, most majestic creature,
if my magic made you smaller,
winged and small enough for flying,
would you think it worth the bargain?"
Obadiah stared and trembled.
"If I shrank as small as you are,
blown and lifted by the breezes,
I would not be Obadiah.
I would be a Pterodactyl.
Pterodactyl, mighty wizard,
please forgive me for refusing,
but the favour of a changing
(even to your magic nature)
is no use to Obadiah,
if the changing leaves behind it
nothing like an Obadiah.
Obadiah, truly flying,
must be me, be Obadiah!"
"What are you?" asked Pterodactyl.
"I am strength," said Obadiah,
"walking like a moving mountain,
shoulders equal to the hillsides.
Claws that crush the rock in footprints,
prints sweet rain will fill with water
where the frogs can swim and mutter.
Scales like sheets of green and silver;
voice that wakens cloud and mountain
with my roar to welcome morning.
What has that to do with flying?"
"Earthly beasts as large as you are
never fly," said Pterodactyl.
"Do you see these tiny creatures,
running through the roots of bushes?
When my children's children flutter
dressed in many-coloured feathers,
making nests in every treetop,
these will grow to apes and monkeys.
One strange monkey, walking upright,
next will think of telling stories."
"What are stories?" Obadiah
asked the wizard, Pterodactyl.
"In a dream you saw a wonder.
There you flew above the ocean,
there you soared above the mountains;
in a dream there are no limits.
Stories are like dreams together,
shared and passed between the dreamers.
Stories are a world of magic,
one where you could find your wonder."
"Send me there," said Obadiah.
Pterodactyl flapped her wingtips,
made a mist of purple silence,
spoke a magic word and quivered.
When she finished, Obadiah
disappeared from where she saw him.
Ages after, something sudden
gave the dinosaurs an ending.
No-one knows their end for certain.
While the birds and oaks and monkeys
grew and changed from Pterodactyl,
trees like ferns, and tiny creatures,
Obadiah kept his patience,
free from time and free from waiting,
reaching for the world of stories.
Men appeared, and walked with women,
hunted antelope and salmon,
filled their bellies round the camp fire,
filled their thoughts and dreams with stories.
Through them all flew Obadiah,
winged and mighty as his dreaming.
Folk in every country named him,
when they found him in their stories,
found him breathing fire and flying,
found him seeking gold and hoarding,
changing all but size and splendour.
When the Romans heard him flying
through the sky of Latin stories,
draconem was what they called him,
so his name for us is Dragon.
Obadiah, first of dragons,
lives for ever in our stories.
People never see a dragon
in the empty facts of sunlight,
but the worldwide world of stories
where the truth is in the vision
is the place where dragons cluster.
All the sons of Obadiah
fly like shining birds at midnight,
in the worldwide world of stories.
In a dream he saw a wonder.
In our dream-together stories,
what he saw we share, for ever.
(You probably shouldnt' reproduce it anywhere, since there are copyright issues (which I don't really understand.)
A dinosaur named Obadiah
walked among the swamps and marshes.
Ferny trees that barred his passage
fell beneath his mighty footsteps,
as he trod them down unnoticed,
looking for a mighty wizard.
Smells of magic in the river
led him to the Shouting Water,
where the streams from hills and mountains
joined to fall from cliffs, like thunder.
Twice as tall as Obadiah,
filled with rainbows by the sunlight,
Shouting Water roared and grumbled.
There he walked against the waters,
wading in the narrow valley
cut in rock by Shouting Water.
Great and heavy, Obadiah
stood unshifted by the water,
where a lesser beast would perish,
smashed on rocks, or lost for ever.
In the wild and foaming river,
there he drank the living water,
let its magic fill his body.
There he stood and asked his question.
"Shouting Water, mighty wizard,
will you work for me a magic?"
In the roaring of the water
came a sound like thunder singing.
"Dinosaur named Obadiah,
walking like a moving mountain,
speaking like the clash of battle,
how can dinosaurs need magic?"
Obadiah stood and rumbled,
"In a dream I saw a wonder.
All the earth, spread out below me,
glowed in green and brown and yellow.
Sunlight lit blue streams and oceans,
shining like the sky around me.
Shouting Water, mighty wizard,
teach a dinosaur to fly!"
"If I could," sang Shouting Water,
"I would teach you very gladly,
but a wizard lives by limits.
All my magic is in falling,
shaping cliffs and carving valleys.
You must find another wizard."
Evening fell while Obadiah
wandered in the mountain passes,
where the rocks are tall and heavy,
looking for a mighty wizard.
Smells of magic in the river
led him up and up a mountain,
till he found himself the highest
any dinosaur had clambered,
where the rock was dry and empty.
All the earth, spread out below him,
glowed in shades of black and silver.
Moonlight lit the distant ocean,
shining like the Moon above him.
There he stood and asked his question.
"Moon above me, mighty wizard,
will you work for me a magic?"
In the quiet of the moonlight
came a sound like silver dreaming.
"Dinosaur named Obadiah,
walking like a moving mountain,
speaking like the clash of battle,
how can dinosaurs need magic?"
Obadiah stood and rumbled,
"In a dream I saw a wonder.
All the earth, spread out below me,
glowed in green and brown and yellow.
Sunlight lit blue streams and oceans,
shining like the sky around me.
Moon above me, mighty wizard,
teach a dinosaur to fly!"
"If I could," sang beams of moonlight,
"I would teach you very gladly,
but a wizard lives by limits.
All my magic is in falling,
like a heavy stone thrown sideways.
As I bend my falling downward,
Earth below me bends her surface.
You can see, spread out before you,
how her shining plains curve downward.
Bending round I fall to chase them,
never getting any nearer,
find myself just one month later
falling through the place I started,
falling round and round for ever.
If you dream of flying freely,
flying up and down and landing,
you must find another wizard."
In the morning, Obadiah
walked among the mossy valleys.
Dinosaurs were all around him.
Some were almost big as he was,
some like boulders, some like pebbles,
all in awe of Obadiah.
Obadiah thought of wonders
as he moved among his kindred,
looking for a mighty wizard.
Smells of magic from above him
led him slowly to look upward.
In the sky (with wings like leather
featherless between her fingers)
moved the form of Pterodactyl,
first among the flying creatures.
Robins, eagles, crows and sparrows
are the children of the children,
many times the great-grandchildren,
of the eggs of Pterodactyl.
Obadiah watched her settle
on a hill of orange sandstone,
skin alight with black and crimson
near the level of his shoulders.
There he stood and asked his question.
"Pterodactyl, mighty wizard,
will you work for me a magic?"
In the rustle of the morning
came a sound like iron scraping.
"Dinosaur named Obadiah,
walking like a moving mountain,
speaking like the clash of battle,
how can dinosaurs need magic?"
Obadiah stood and rumbled,
"In a dream I saw a wonder.
All the earth, spread out below me,
glowed in green and brown and yellow.
Sunlight lit blue streams and oceans,
shining like the sky around me.
Pterodactyl, mighty wizard,
teach a dinosaur to fly!"
"If I could," cawed Pterodactyl,
"I would teach you very gladly,
but a wizard lives by limits.
I am small and shaped for flying.
Since my mother's mother started,
we have learned the rules that bind it.
Maybe on another planet,
where the air is thick as water,
or the weight of things is tiny,
creatures large as Obadiah
grow great wings as wide as rivers,
which can fly them over mountains.
But on Earth there is no muscle
that can move a wing so mighty
it can carry Obadiah.
Tell me, most majestic creature,
if my magic made you smaller,
winged and small enough for flying,
would you think it worth the bargain?"
Obadiah stared and trembled.
"If I shrank as small as you are,
blown and lifted by the breezes,
I would not be Obadiah.
I would be a Pterodactyl.
Pterodactyl, mighty wizard,
please forgive me for refusing,
but the favour of a changing
(even to your magic nature)
is no use to Obadiah,
if the changing leaves behind it
nothing like an Obadiah.
Obadiah, truly flying,
must be me, be Obadiah!"
"What are you?" asked Pterodactyl.
"I am strength," said Obadiah,
"walking like a moving mountain,
shoulders equal to the hillsides.
Claws that crush the rock in footprints,
prints sweet rain will fill with water
where the frogs can swim and mutter.
Scales like sheets of green and silver;
voice that wakens cloud and mountain
with my roar to welcome morning.
What has that to do with flying?"
"Earthly beasts as large as you are
never fly," said Pterodactyl.
"Do you see these tiny creatures,
running through the roots of bushes?
When my children's children flutter
dressed in many-coloured feathers,
making nests in every treetop,
these will grow to apes and monkeys.
One strange monkey, walking upright,
next will think of telling stories."
"What are stories?" Obadiah
asked the wizard, Pterodactyl.
"In a dream you saw a wonder.
There you flew above the ocean,
there you soared above the mountains;
in a dream there are no limits.
Stories are like dreams together,
shared and passed between the dreamers.
Stories are a world of magic,
one where you could find your wonder."
"Send me there," said Obadiah.
Pterodactyl flapped her wingtips,
made a mist of purple silence,
spoke a magic word and quivered.
When she finished, Obadiah
disappeared from where she saw him.
Ages after, something sudden
gave the dinosaurs an ending.
No-one knows their end for certain.
While the birds and oaks and monkeys
grew and changed from Pterodactyl,
trees like ferns, and tiny creatures,
Obadiah kept his patience,
free from time and free from waiting,
reaching for the world of stories.
Men appeared, and walked with women,
hunted antelope and salmon,
filled their bellies round the camp fire,
filled their thoughts and dreams with stories.
Through them all flew Obadiah,
winged and mighty as his dreaming.
Folk in every country named him,
when they found him in their stories,
found him breathing fire and flying,
found him seeking gold and hoarding,
changing all but size and splendour.
When the Romans heard him flying
through the sky of Latin stories,
draconem was what they called him,
so his name for us is Dragon.
Obadiah, first of dragons,
lives for ever in our stories.
People never see a dragon
in the empty facts of sunlight,
but the worldwide world of stories
where the truth is in the vision
is the place where dragons cluster.
All the sons of Obadiah
fly like shining birds at midnight,
in the worldwide world of stories.
In a dream he saw a wonder.
In our dream-together stories,
what he saw we share, for ever.
(You probably shouldnt' reproduce it anywhere, since there are copyright issues (which I don't really understand.)