Poems and Thoughts    by Frank Maurer

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Fashion VS Function. In 1978, when I returned to my country after nine years away: Teaching abroad--Turkiye, Africa, and Sweden. My mother found a 37 acre property in Davis, California. The original house was situated in a north-south orientation. She wished to add on for her own personal abode, So we discussed, by letter, the position of the attached new home. The orientation, of course, was a right angle--east-west position, That was to catch the rays of the sun! Upon my arrival, Mother hired a contractor and commenced the building. I stayed out of the further design and construction-- Her temperament was such that one did not interfere. My mother has now passed and I live in her former abode. All has been well, except for some of the house design. The tiny, unrealistic solar box has been relegated, obsolete. The magnificent timbers, supporting the beamed ceilings Protrude out of the roof, emulating the ribs of a large dinosaur. All was well, until the huge climate change storms began to emerge. The 'ribs' had conducted intense rainstorm flows into the house! Three buckets are now engaged with each storm To prevent the flowing drips, moistening the contents within! The moral of this is, which even Frank Lloyd Wright might have learned, (A few of his designs are documented as having difficulties), Flaunting architecture could be redesigned to render a humbler display. (Consider the huge cumbersome tail of the Peacock to attract females Against the overwhelming 'non dimensional' vocalizations of the Nightingale.) Frank Maurer 4 February 2024 1050 Hours.