TATRANEWS

October Newsletter

My dear Friends: This has been an unusual year for all of us, with some suffering undue hardships from the virus, the effects of climate change and the lack of positive political leadership, others escaping relatively unscathed, though wishing for more social interaction. Marcia and I have been mostly keeping to ourselves the last five months in beautiful Vermont, where, fortunately so far, the response to COVID-19 has been exemplary. May this continue. But our particular sorrow is that we are far from our children and grandchildren -- one lot is in San Francisco, the other in Nairobi -- and most of our dear friends. This, too, shall pass, we hope. I continue to write, although I am perhaps much distracted by the unusual political scene here in the USA leading up to the election in a few weeks and the other causes of global trauma mentioned above. I write poetry when inspiration strikes, eventually to be part of a fifth collection, and am working on the sequel to Arctic Meltdown, also with my publishers to try and get my short story collection, The Mind Spins, and the rerelease of Arctic Meltdown out as soon as feasible. Unfortunately, the publishing world, too, is impacted. In my spare time, I have been doing reviews for the New York Journal of Books over the last several months. My three latest reviews are of Ken Follett's The Evening and the Morning, Greer McAllister's The Arctic Fury and Dead Doubles by Trevor Barnes. You can see them at: https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/recent-reviews Relevant for my writing, especially my two most recent poetry collections, Extinction and Extinction Rebellion is that we watched David Attenborough's latest film, A Life on a Planet, available on Netflix and elsewhere. This is a must-see movie, a call to action as mankind paves the way for its own demise by bringing about global warming and destroying other forms of life. The cinematography is breathtaking and Attenborough in his 94th year is a wonderfully compelling narrator. Watch this, you won't regret it! I will leave you with a poem from Extinction Rebellion with a message similar to David Attenborough's: Mankind faces extinction Like those beasts from the Jurassic, T. rex and the pterodactyl, mankind faces extinction— though it is not an asteroid, nor an erupting volcano, but our own actions causing it: our conspicuous consumption and relentless pursuit of growth, the burning of fossil fuels, the greenhouse gas emissions that trap the heat of the sun’s rays, melt the ice cover of the poles and the glaciers in the mountains, this creeping change in our climate results in rising sea levels, and fatal flooding on the coasts— it brings hurricanes and flooding, scorching drought and raging wildfires, the rampant spread of diseases; it destroys food crops and sources, poisons our potable water, leading to starvation and thirst, creating social dislocation, mass migration and, worse still, war— mankind faces extinction by our own self-centered actions May it not come to pass! Stay safe and healthy, Geza