for the elephants

[LauraL]

(for Tyke that was shot in the street in Hawaii)




for Tyke

Stolen from family,
beaten into submission.
they robbed you of even hope.
Day after frustrating day,
it was not living ,taking all
of your strength just
to cope.

With pain and fear
they bent your will
and pushed you
to the brink of despair.
Spirit uncrushed one final rush
to freedom knowing death
was waiting there.

The greatest sorrow is knowing
your only release came
with life blood flowing
in that dirty street.

Your mighty heart slows

til with the final beat

your only freedom

DEATH.

LauraL 04

[LauraL]

The Fallen

One by one
they fall .
While pleas to free them
fall on deaf ears .
Gentle beings trapped ,
feet rotting, painful days,
stretching to years.

One by one
they fall
as so many have
gone on before.
Long lists of names
burned into memory.
Those wasted lives ,
how many more ??

One by one
they fall .
With sanctuary so close
yet heartlessly denied .
Many voices were raised
to free you Tatima ,
squashed by those full of greed
arrogance and pride.


We can not forget all those who have fallen .

laura linklater Oct20/04

[Sebby]

Wow. Very powerful. Your words certainly serve to educate the reader to the horrors these beautiful creatures face. Terrible that death should be the release to freedom. Nice works.

[LauraL]

thankyou

i need to ask how to add pictures into posts,

[LauraL]

( for the last two rescued elephants that left the Hawthorne barn )


Nic and Gypsy



metal bites ankle,

hooks gouging skin

cold and empty darkness

sadness creeps slowly in.



mothers trunk , family voices,

they're gone now two by two.

we're left all alone Aunty,

let me hold onto you .



echoes of our lost ones

heavy in this empty space.

a dream of open skies ,

some green grass , a loving place.



into the truck Gypsy ,

now we are the last two .

unsure first steps , a new world ,

don't let me lose sight of you !



freedom and choice , laying in the mud ,

blue sky stretching endlessly above.

oh Gypsy it's not a dream ,

we are surrounded by love .



http://sosha.users2.50megs.com/Nicandgypsy.html



laura linklater

april 12/07
(picture used with permission Janice Clark)

[lizzytysh]

Your poems are so moving, Laura. I love the elephants, too. An artist friend does beautiful paintings of them. A couple of women I know own a big cat and other wildlife sanctuary called EARS. There's an elephant sanctuary closer to the west coast [of Florida] that they talked with, as they were wanting to see if they could take in some elephants, but they didn't have enough space. The same problem has arisen here, where it was so clear that they needed to go, but their owners refused.

Your poems express all the tragedy, heartbreak, and pain surrounding the relentless, ongoing abuse of these beautiful and magnificent beings, who almost all are so gentle when simply left alone. Thank you for speaking for them with such heartfelt power and sad eloquence.

I've just seen the photos and video clips. So heartwarming. They look so happy, though it looks like long-term sorrow mixed with age in Nicholas's eyes.


~ Lizzy

[LauraL]

Nic and Gypsy were the last two to leave that horrific place.....
there was no place for male elephants

PAWS is amazing , they had a $500,000 donation from Bob Barker so Nic
could finally be rescued.

His mother went to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee
http://www.tappedintoelephants.com/asp/index.php

I followed the story of Tina that lived here and was retired to TES
she was only there a short time , her feet were so badly damaged and her heart gave out

that broke my heart

[LauraL]

for Tina

Tears of Love

It started with
a single tear ,
slowly falling ,
unleashing a torrent
following disbelief .
The spreading news
of Tina's passing
opening flood gates
of sorrow and grief.

Calmly and lovingly
she changed everyone
her spirit touched
in so many ways .
We thought she would
have years in paradise
not knowing her life
was counted in just days .

She was singing a joyous song
to her ancestors
of her time to join them above .
The dusty road home
to her heavenly keeper
washed clean by these tears of love .

laura linklater oct.7/04

[lizzytysh]

Just, simply, beautiful, Laura.

Thank you for sharing your deep feelings for the elephants in the moving way that you do.


~ Lizzy

[lizzytysh]

Another jungle creature being impacted in similar and same ways . More evidence of some of the high costs of progress, civilization, and greed.

Gorillas now 'critically endangered' By ERICA BULMAN, Associated Press Writer
Wed Sep 12, 4:10 PM ET



GENEVA - The most common type of gorilla is now "critically endangered," one step away from global extinction, according to the 2007 Red List of Threatened Species released Wednesday by the World Conservation Union.

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The Ebola virus is depleting Western Gorilla populations to a point where it might become impossible for them to recover.

Commercial hunting, civil unrest and habitat loss due to logging and forest clearance for palm oil plantations are compounding the problem, said the Swiss-based group known by its acronym IUCN.

"Great apes are our closest living relatives and very special creatures," Russ Mittermeier, head of IUCN's Primate Specialist Group, told The Associated Press. "We could fit all the remaining great apes in the world into two or three large football stadiums. There just aren't very many left."

In all, 16,306 species are threatened with extinction, 188 more than last year, IUCN said. One in four mammals are in jeopardy, as are one in eight birds, a third of all amphibians and 70 percent of the plants that have been studied.

"Life on Earth is disappearing fast and will continue to do so unless urgent action is taken," the IUCN warned.

The Western Gorilla's main subspecies — the Western Lowland Gorilla — has been decimated by the Ebola virus, which has wiped out about a third of the gorillas found in protected areas over the last 15 years.

"In the last 10 years, Ebola is the single largest killer of apes. Poaching is a close second," said Peter Walsh, a member if IUCN's Primate Specialist Group, told the AP. "Ebola is knocking down populations to a level where they won't bounce back. The rate of decline is dizzying. If it continues, we'll lose them in 10-12 years."

Female gorillas only start reproducing at the age of 9 or 10 and only have one baby about every five years. Walsh said even in ideal conditions, it would take the gorillas decades to bounce back.

The World Conservation Union also said the Yangtze River dolphin is now "possibly extinct." There have been no documented sightings of the long-snouted cetacean since 2002. An intensive search of its habitat in November and December proved fruitless but more searches are needed as one was possibly spotted in late August.

The Redheaded Vulture soared from "near threatened" to "critically endangered." The birds' rapid decline over the last eight years is largely due to diclofenac, a painkiller given to ill or injured farm cattle so they can still work. But the substance poisons the vultures when they scavenge livestock carcasses.

Only 182 breeding adults of the Gharial crocodile remain, down almost 60 percent from a decade ago. India and Nepal's crocodile has become critically endangered because dams, irrigation projects and artificial embankments have reduced its habitat to just 2 percent of its former range.

The woolly-stalked begonia is the only species declared extinct this year. Extensive searches have failed to uncover any specimens of the Malaysian herb in the last century, IUCN said.

Only one species moved to a lesser category of threat. One of the world's rarest parrots 15 years ago, the Mauritius Echo parakeet, eased back from critically endangered to only endangered. That was a result of close monitoring of its nesting sites, and supplementary feeding combined with a captive breeding and release program.

IUCN says 785 species have disappeared over the last 500 years. A further 65 are found only in artificial settings such as zoos.

The Red List, produced by a worldwide network of thousands of experts, includes some 41,000 species and subspecies around the globe.

[jaked]

My father was a silver back gorilla i rember from when I was small boy