Shakespeare and Others on Calves, Deer, Flies, Beetles, Vivivsectors and Animal Flesh






SHAKESPEARE ON CALVES DEER FLIES BEETLES
VIVISECTORS AND ANIMAL FLESH

OF CALVES

-William Shakespeare-


William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part Two, Act 3, Scene 1, Lines 202-220

Thou never didst them wrong, nor no man wrong;
And as the butcher takes away the calf,
And binds the wretch, and beats it when it strays,
Bearing it to the bloody slaughter-house,
Even so, remorseless, have they borne him hence;
And as the dam runs lowing up and down,
Looking the way her harmless young one went,
And can do nought but wail her darling's loss.

ON A FLY

William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus Act 3, Scene 2, Lines 55-80

Mar. At that that I have kill'd, my lord; a fly.
Tit. Out on thee, murderer! thou kill'st my heart;
Mine eyes are cloy'd with view of tyranny:
A deed of death, done on the innocent,
Becomes not Titus' brother. Get thee gone;
I see, thou art not for my company.
Mar. Alas! my lord, I have but kill'd a fly.
Tit. But how if that fly had a father and a mother?
How would he hang his slender gilded wings
And buzz lamenting doings in the air!
Poor harmless fly,
That, with his pretty buzzing melody,

**
ON DEER

[c1600] | William Shakespeare, As You Like It Act 2, Scene 1, Lines 24-71

Duke S. Come, shall we go and kill us venison?
And yet it irks me, the poor dappled fools,
Being native burghers of this desert city,
Should in their own confines with forked heads
Have their round haunches gor'd.
First Lord. Indeed, my lord,
The melancholy Jaques grieves at that;
And, in that kind, swears you do more usurp
Than doth your brother that hath banish'd you.
To-day my Lord of Amiens and myself
Did steal behind him as he lay along
Under an oak whose antique root peeps out
Upon the brook that brawls along this wood;
To the which place a poor sequester'd stag,
That from the hunters' aim had ta'en a hurt,
Did come to languish; and, indeed, my lord,
The wretched animal heav'd forth such groans
That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat
Almost to bursting, and the big round tears
Cours'd one another down his innocent nose
In piteous chase; and thus the hairy fool,
Much marked of the melancholy Jaques,
Stood on the extremest verge of the swift brook,
Augmenting it with tears.
Duke S. But what said Jaques?
Did he not moralize this spectacle?
First Lord. O, yes, into a thousand similes.
First, for his weeping into the needless stream;
'Poor deer,' quoth he, 'thou mak'st a testament
As worldlings do, giving thy sum of more
To that which had too much: then, being there alone,
Left and abandon'd of his velvet friends;
'Tis right,' quoth he; 'thus misery doth part
The flux of company:' anon, a careless herd,
Full of the pasture, jumps along by him
And never stays to greet him; 'Ay,' quoth Jaques,
'Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens;
'Tis just the fashion; wherefore do you look
Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there?'
Thus most invectively he pierceth through
The body of the country, city, court, '
Yea, and of this our life; swearing that we
Are mere usurpers, tyrants, and what's worse,
To fright the animals and to kill them up
In their assign'd and native dwelling-place.
Duke S. And did you leave him in this contemplation?
Sec. Lord. We did, my lord, weeping and commenting
Upon the sobbing deer.

ON ANIMALS TURNED INTO MEAT

William Shakespeare, Twelfth-Night; or, What You Will Act 1, Scene 3,
Line 46
I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit.

ON BEETLES
William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure , Act 3, Scene 1, Lines 85-87 .

Isab.…And the poor beetle, that we tread upon,
In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies.

ON VIVISECTION OR ANIMAL RESEARCH HARDENING THE HEART

William Shakespeare, Cymbeline Act 1, Scene 5, Lines 7-32

I will try the forces
Of these thy compounds on such creatures as
We count not worth the hanging,—but none human,—
To try the vigour of them and apply
Allayments to their act, and by them gather
Their several virtues and effects.
Cor. Your highness
Shall from this practice but make hard your heart;
Besides, the seeing these effects will be
Both noisome and infectious.

*********************
 http://www.postpoems.com/members/animalpoems
 http://www.animalrightshistory.org
Your additions are welcome.


ANIMAL POEMS




UNSEEN THEY SUFFER

Unseen they suffer
Unheard they cry
In agony they linger
In loneliness they die.

(unknown author..
poem about laboratory
animals..
 http://www.stopanimaltests.com)

LABANE

The Royal Eagle, with his pearly beak
Digs into the slain hearts
Ruptures the life roots
Abandons the remains

-Annette M'Baye-
(Senegalese poet)

WE ARE THE LIVING GRAVE OF MURDERED BEASTS

- George Bernard Shaw-

We are the living graves of murdered beasts
Slaughtered to satisfy our appetites
We never pause to wonder at our feasts
If animals, like men, can possibly
have rights
We pray on Sundays that we may have light
To guide our footsteps on the path we
tread
We're sick of war We do not want to
fight
The thought of it now fills our hearts with dread
And yet we gorge ourselves upon the dead
Like carrion crows we live and feed on meat
Regardless of the suffering and pain
We cause by doing so. If thus we treat
Defenseless animals for sport or gain
How can we hope in this world to attain
the PEACE we say we are so anxious for
We pray for it o'er hecatombs of slain
To God, while outraging the moral law
Thus cruelty begets its offspring: war.

(Some believe that George Bernard Shaw ghostwrote
at least one of the books of the Booth who founded
the Salvation Army)
(The Army has lapsed from the vegetarian diet of
General Bramwell Booth.. which was based on the
teachings of Christ)


THE GARDEN

-William Cowper-


Well--one at least is safe. One shelter'd hare
has never heard the sanguinary yell
of cruel man, exulting in her woes.
Innocent partner of my peaceful home,
Whom ten long years' experience of my care
Has made at last familiar; she has lost
Much of her vigilant instinctive dread,
Not needdful here, beneath a roof like mine.
Yes--thou may'st eat they bread, and lick the hand
That feeds thee; thou may'st frolic on the floor
At evening, and at night retire secure
To thy straw couch, and slumber unalarm'd;
For I have gain'd the confidence, have peldg'd
All that is human in me to protect
Thine unsuspecting gratitude and love.
If I survive thee I will dig thy grave;
And, when I place thee in it, sighing, say,
I knew at least one hare that had a friend.



THE OWL CRITIC

"Who stuffed that white owl?" No one spoke in the shop;
The barber was busy, and he couldn't stop;
The customers, waiting their turns, were reading
The Daily, the Herald, the Post, little heeding
The young man who blurted out such a blunt question;
Not one raised a head, or even made a suggestion;
And the barber kept on shaving.

"Don't you see, Mister Brown,"
Cried the youth with a frown,
"How wrong the whole thing is,
How preposterous each wing is,
How flattened the head, how jammed down the neck is--
In short, the whole owl, what an ignorant wreck 'tis!

"I make no apology;
I've learned owleology,
I've passed days and nights in a hundred collections,
And cannot be blinded to any deflections
Arising from unskilful fingers that fail
To stuff a bird right, from his beak to his tail.
Mister Brown, Mister Brown!
Do take that bird down,
Or you'll soon be the laughing stock all over town!"
And the barber kept on shaving.

"I've studied owls,
And other night fowls,
And I tell you
What I know to be true!
An owl cannot roost
With his limbs so unloosed;
No owl in this world
Ever had his claws curled,
Ever had his legs slanted,
Ever had his bill canted,
Ever had his neck screwed
Into that attitude.
He can't do it, because
'Tis against all bird laws.
Anatomy teaches,
Ornithology preaches,
An owl has a toe
That can't turn out so!
I've made the white owl my study for years,
And to see such a job almost moves me to tears!

"Mister Brown, I'm amazed
You should be so crazed
As to put up a bird
In that posture absurd!
To look at that owl really brings on a dizziness;
The man who stuffed him don't half know his business!"
And the barber kept on shaving.
"Examine those eyes,
I'm filled with surprise
Taxidermists should pass
Off on you such poor glass;
So unnatural they seem
They'd make Audubon scream,
And John Burroughs laugh
To encounter such chaff.
Do take that bird down;
Have him stuffed again, Brown!"
And the barber kept on shaving.

"With some sawdust and bark
I could stuff in the dark
An owl better than that.
I could make an old bat
Look more like an owl
Than that horrid fowl,
Stuck up there so stiff like a side of coarse leather;
In fact, about him there's not one natural feather."

Just then with a wink and a sly normal lurch,
The owl, very gravely, got down from his perch,
Walked round, and regarded his fault-finding critic,
(Who thought he was stuffed) with a glance analytic,
And then fairly hooted, as if he should say:
"Your learning's at fault, this time, anyway;
Don't waste it again on a live bird, I pray.
I'm an owl; you're another. Sir Critic, good-day!"
And the barber kept on shaving.

- James T. Fields-

AUGURIES OF INNOCENCE

-by William Blake-

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
A robin redbreast in a cage
Puts all heaven in a rage.
A dove-house filled with doves and pigeons
Shudders hell through all its regions.
A dog starved at his master's gate
Predicts the ruin of the state.
A horse misused upon the road
Calls to heaven for human blood.
Each outcry of the hunted hare
A fibre from the brain does tear.
A skylark wounded in the wing,
A cherubim does cease to sing.
The gamethingy clipped and armed for fight
Does the rising sun affright.
Every wolf's and lion's howl
Raises from hell a human soul.
The wild deer wandering here and there
Keeps the human soul from care.
The lamb misused breeds public strife,
And yet forgives the butcher's knife.
The bat that flits at close of eve
Has left the brain that won't believe.
The owl that calls upon the night
Speaks the unbeliever's fright.
He who shall hurt the little wren
Shall never be beloved by men.
He who the ox to wrath has moved
Shall never be by woman loved.
The wanton boy that kills the fly
Shall feel the spider's enmity.
He who torments the chafer's sprite
Weaves a bower in endless night.
The caterpillar on the leaf
Repeats to thee thy mother's grief.
Kill not the moth nor butterfly,
For the Last Judgment draweth nigh.
He who shall train the horse to war
Shall never pass the polar bar.
The beggar's dog and widow's cat,
Feed them, and thou wilt grow fat.
The gnat that sings his summer's song
Poison gets from Slander's tongue.
The poison of the snake and newt
Is the sweat of Envy's foot.
The poison of the honey-bee
Is the artist's jealousy.
The prince's robes and beggar's rags
Are toadstools on the miser's bags.
A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.
It is right it should be so:
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know
Through the world we safely go.
Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine.
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.
The babe is more than swaddling bands,
Throughout all these human lands;
Tools were made and born were hands,
Every farmer understands.
Every tear from every eye
Becomes a babe in eternity;
This is caught by females bright
And returned to its own delight.
The bleat, the bark, bellow, and roar
Are waves that beat on heaven's shore.
The babe that weeps the rod beneath
Writes Revenge! in realms of death.
The beggar's rags fluttering in air
Does to rags the heavens tear.
The soldier armed with sword and gun
Palsied strikes the summer's sun.
The poor man's farthing is worth more
Than all the gold on Afric's shore.
One mite wrung from the labourer's hands
Shall buy and sell the miser's lands,
Or if protected from on high
Does that whole nation sell and buy.
He who mocks the infant's faith
Shall be mocked in age and death.
He who shall teach the child to doubt
The rotting grave shall ne'er get out.
He who respects the infant's faith
Triumphs over hell and death.
The child's toys and the old man's reasons
Are the fruits of the two seasons.
The questioner who sits so sly
Shall never know how to reply.
He who replies to words of doubt
Doth put the light of knowledge out.
The strongest poison ever known
Came from Caesar's laurel crown.
Nought can deform the human race
Like to the armour's iron brace.
When gold and gems adorn the plough
To peaceful arts shall Envy bow.
A riddle or the cricket's cry
Is to doubt a fit reply.
The emmet's inch and eagle's mile
Make lame philosophy to smile.
He who doubts from what he sees
Will ne'er believe, do what you please.
If the sun and moon should doubt,
They'd immediately go out.
To be in a passion you good may do,
But no good if a passion is in you.
The sleeper and gambler, by the state
Licensed, build that nation's fate.
The harlot's cry from street to street
Shall weave old England's winding sheet.
The winner's shout, the loser's curse,
Dance before dead England's hearse.
Every night and every morn
Some to misery are born.
Every morn and every night
Some are born to sweet delight.
Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.
We are led to believe a lie
When we see not through the eye
Which was born in a night to perish in a night,
When the soul slept in beams of light.
God appears, and God is light
To those poor souls who dwell in night,
But does a human form display
To those who dwell in realms of day.

THE PRAYER OF THE DONKEY

O God, who made me to
trudge along the road
always,
to carry heavy loads always
and to be beaten
always!
Give me great courage and gentleness.
One day let somebody understand me--
that I may no longer want to weep
because I can never say what
I mean
and they make fun of me.
Let me find a juice thistle--
and make them give me time to pick it.
And Lord, one day, let me find again
my little brother at the Christmas crib.

Amen

(editor's note) and my sister donkey who
carried Christ on Palm Sunday

- Carmen Bernos De Gasztold-

passed on by
Caroline Gilbert

POINT OF VIEW

Thanksgiving dinner's sad and thankless
Christmas dinner's dark and blue
When you stop and try to see it
From the turkey's point of view.
Sunday dinner isn't sunny
Easter feasts are just bad luck
When you see it from the viewpoint
Of a chicken or a duck.
Oh how I once loved tuna salad
Pork and lobsters, lamb chops too
Till I stopped and looked at dinner
From the dinner's point of view.

-Shel Silverstein-

SHEEP

by W. H. Davies born in 1871

When I was once in Baltimore
A man came up to me and cried
`Come, I have eighteen hundred sheep,
And we sail on Tuesday's tide.'

`If you will sail with me, young man,
I'll pay you fifty shillings down.
These eighteen hundred sheep I take
From Baltimore to Glasgow town.'

He paid me fifty shillings down.
I sailed with eighteen hundred sheep;
We soon had cleared the harbour's mouth,
We soon were in the salt sea deep.

The first night we were out at sea.
Those sheep were quiet in their mind.
The second night they cried with fear –
They smelt no pastures in the wind.

They sniffed, poor things, for their green fields.
They cried so loud I could not sleep:
For fifty thousand shillings down
I would not sail again with sheep.

(Poem reproduced by World Animal Day with kind permission of Kieron
Griffin as Trustee for the Mrs H M Davies Will Trust)
 http://www.worldanimalday.org.uk

VEGAN POETS

veganica.com/artist/contact.php
 http://www.veganpeace.com/links/animal_rights_art.htm

HAIKU OF JAMES HACKETT

the little green bug
crawling out of this flower
sports new white shoes

ON THE MOVE

-Thom Gunn-

The blue jay scuffling in the bushes follows
Some hidden purpose, and the gush of birds
That spurts across the field, the wheeling swallows,
Have nested in the trees and undergrowth.
Seeking their instinct, or their pose, or both,
One moves with an uncertain violence
Under the dust thrown by a baffled sense
Or the dull thunder of approximate words.

On motorcycles, up the road, they come:
Small, black, as flies hanging in heat, the Boy,
Until the distance throws them forth, their hum
Bulges to thunder held by calf and thigh.
In goggles, donned impersonality,
In gleaming jackets trophied with the dust,
They strap in doubt--by hiding it, robust--
And almost hear a meaning in their noise.

Exact conclusion of their hardiness
Has no shape yet, but from known whereabouts
They ride, directions where the tires press.
They scare a flight of birds across the field:
Much that is natural, to the will must yield.
Men manufacture both machine and soul,
And use what they imperfectly control
To dare a future from the taken routes.

It is part solution, after all.
One is not necessarily discord
On Earth; or d**ned because, half animal,
One lacks direct instinct, because one wakes
Afloat on movement that divides and breaks.
One joins the movement in a valueless world,
Crossing it, till, both hurler and the hurled,
One moves as well, always toward, toward.

A minute holds them, who have come to go:
The self-denied, astride the created will.
They burst away; the towns they travel through
Are home for neither birds nor holiness,
For birds and saints complete their purposes.
At worse, one is in motion; and at best,
Reaching no absolute, in which to rest,
One is always nearer by not keeping still.

Some
Animal Poems from (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets)
by JOHN HOLLANDER (Editor)


SCENE OF PIG KILLING

in Jude The Obscure
-by Thomas Hardy-

THE time arrived for killing the pig which Jude and his wife had
fattened in their sty during the autumn months, and the butchering
was timed to take place as soon as it was light in the morning,
so that Jude might get to Alfredston without losing more than
a quarter of a day.
The night had seemed strangely silent. Jude looked out of the window
long before dawn, and perceived that the ground was covered with snow--
snow rather deep for the season, it seemed, a few flakes still falling.
"I'm afraid the pig-killer won't be able to come," he said to Arabella.
"Oh, he'll come. You must get up and make the water hot,
if you want Challow to scald him. Though I like singeing best."
"I'll get up," said Jude. "I like the way of my own county."
He went downstairs, lit the fire under the copper, and began
feeding it with bean-stalks, all the time without a candle,
the blaze flinging a cheerful shine into the room; though for
him the sense of cheerfulness was lessened by thoughts on
the reason of that blaze--to heat water to scald the bristles
from the body of an animal that as yet lived, and whose voice
could be continually heard from a corner of the garden.
At half-past six, the time of appointment with the butcher,
the water boiled, and Jude's wife came downstairs.
"Is Challow come?" she asked.
"No."
They waited, and it grew lighter, with the dreary light of a snowy dawn.
She went out, gazed along the road, and returning said, "He's not coming.
Drunk last night, I expect. The snow is not enough to hinder him, surely!"
"Then we must put it off. It is only the water boiled for nothing.
The snow may be deep in the valley."
"Can't be put off. There's no more victuals for the pig.
He ate the last mixing o' barleymeal yesterday morning."
"Yesterday morning? What has he lived on since?"
"Nothing."
"What--he has been starving?"
"Yes. We always do it the last day or two, to save bother with the
innerds.
What ignorance, not to know that!"
"That accounts for his crying so. Poor creature!"
"Well--you must do the sticking--there's no help for it.
I'll show you how. Or I'll do it myself--I think I could.
Though as it is such a big pig I had rather Challow had done it.
However, his basket o' knives and things have been already sent
on here, and we can use 'em."
"Of course you shan't do it," said Jude. "I'll do it, since it must be
done."
He went out to the sty, shovelled away the snow for the space
of a couple of yards or more, and placed the stool in front,
with the knives and ropes at hand. A robin peered down at
the preparations from the nearest tree, and, not liking
the sinister look of the scene, flew away, though hungry.
By this time Arabella had joined her husband, and Jude, rope in hand,
got into the sty, and noosed the affrighted animal, who, beginning
with a squeak of surprise, rose to repeated cries of rage.
Arabella opened the sty-door, and together they hoisted
the victim on to the stool, legs upward, and while Jude held
him Arabella bound him down, looping the cord over his legs
to keep him from struggling.
The animal's note changed its quality. It was not now rage,
but the cry of despair; long-drawn, slow and hopeless.
"Upon my soul I would sooner have gone without the pig than have had this
to do!" said Jude. "A creature I have fed with my own hands."
"Don't be such a tender-hearted fool! There's the sticking-knife--
the one with the point. Now whatever you do, don't stick un
too deep."
"I'll stick him effectually, so as to make short work of it.
That's the chief thing."
"You must not!" she cried. "The meat must be well bled,
and to do that he must die slow. We shall lose a shilling a score
if the meat is red and bloody! Just touch the vein, that's all.
I was brought up to it, and I know. Every good butcher keeps
un bleeding long. He ought to be eight or ten minutes dying,
at least."
"He shall not be half a minute if I can help it, however the meat may
look,"
said Jude determinedly. Scraping the bristles from the pig's upturned
throat,
as he had seen the butchers do, he slit the fat; then plunged in the knife
with all his might.
"'Od d**n it all!" she cried, "that ever I should say it!
You've over-stuck un! And I telling you all the time----"
"Do be quiet, Arabella, and have a little pity on the creature!"
"Hold up the pail to catch the blood, and don't talk!"
However unworkmanlike the deed, it had been mercifully done. The blood
flowed out in a torrent instead of in the trickling stream she had
desired.
The dying animal's cry assumed its third and final tone, the shriek of
agony;
his glazing eyes riveting themselves on Arabella with the eloquently keen
reproach of a creature recognizing at last the treachery of those who had
seemed his only friends.
"Make un stop that!" said Arabella. "Such a noise will bring somebody or
other up here, and I don't want people to know we are doing it ourselves."
Picking up the knife from the ground whereon Jude had flung it, she
slipped it
into the gash, and slit the windpipe. The pig was instantly silent,
his dying
breath coming through the hole
"That's better," she said.
"It is a hateful business!" said he.
"Pigs must be killed."
The animal heaved in a final convulsion, and, despite the rope,
kicked out with all his last strength. A tablesthingyful of black clot
came forth, the trickling of red blood having ceased for some seconds.
"That's it; now he'll go," said she. "Artful creatures--
they always keep back a drop like that as long as they can!"
The last plunge had come so unexpectedly as to make Jude stagger,
and in recovering himself he kicked over the vessel in which the blood')


KILLING THE LAMB

-F M Esfandiary- from the book DAY OF SACRIFICE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



When the butcher finished sharpening his knives, my
2 cousins helped him untie the lamb from the tree and lead her to a spot near the pond. As if sensing danger the lamb stood still, refusing to budge. Unable to push or drag the lamb, the men tried to carry her. But the lamb, visibly filled with fright, kicked and struggled. Putting aside his knives, the butcher skillfully subdued the animal and carried her to the pond. The cousins kept the lamb down by firmly pinning her limbs. As was the custom the butcher forced open her mouth and poured some water into it.

The lamb's eyes were filled with terror as she strained and
struggled to free herself. Cautioning my cousins not to release the animal's limbs, the butcher picked up his sharpest butcher knife and holding back the lamb's struggling head, began to cut
her throat.

Wailing and bleating the lamb struggled to get away. Her eyes,
soft and innocent, now rolled and rolled, full of terror. As the
relentless knife cut deeper the weeping of the lamb became more
and more agonized. The blood spurted out in every direction
as her head slowly sagged. Then soft wool was quickly covered
with blood. Her eyes closed, then opened again, and remained
misty and lifeless. Her limbs no longer had to be held. The
butcher continued to cut the gory throat til her head
was severed from her body.
-------------

(Persian vegetarian Esfandiary)
***

THE BEAR HUNT

- Abraham Lincoln -

A wild-bear chace, didst never see?
Then hast thou lived in vain.
Thy richest bump of glorious glee,
Lies desert in thy brain.

When first my father settled here,
'Twas then the frontier line:
The panther's scream, filled night with fear
And bears preyed on the swine.

But wo for Bruin's short lived fun,
When rose the squealing cry;
Now man and horse, with dog and gun,
For vengeance, at him fly.

A sound of danger strikes his ear;
He gives the breeze a snuff;
Away he bounds, with little fear,
And seeks the tangled rough.

On press his foes, and reach the ground,
Where's left his half munched meal;
The dogs, in circles, scent around,
And find his fresh made trail.

With instant cry, away they dash,
And men as fast pursue;
O'er logs they leap, through water splash,
And shout the brisk halloo.

Now to elude the eager pack,
Bear shuns the open ground;
Th[r]ough matted vines, he shapes his track
And runs it, round and round.

The tall fleet cur, with deep-mouthed voice,
Now speeds him, as the wind;
While half-grown pup, and short-legged fice,
Are yelping far behind.

And fresh recruits are dropping in
To join the merry corps:
With yelp and yell,--a mingled din--
The woods are in a roar.

And round, and round the chace now goes,
The world's alive with fun;
Nick Carter's horse, his rider throws,
And more, Hill drops his gun.

Now sorely pressed, bear glances back,
And lolls his tired tongue;
When as, to force him from his track,
An ambush on him sprung.

Across the glade he sweeps for flight,
And fully is in view.
The dogs, new-fired, by the sight,
Their cry, and speed, renew.

The foremost ones, now reach his rear,
He turns, they dash away;
And circling now, the wrathful bear,
They have him full at bay.

At top of speed, the horse-men come,
All screaming in a row,
"Whoop! Take him Tiger. Seize him Drum."
Bang,--bang--the rifles go.

And furious now, the dogs he tears,
And crushes in his ire,
Wheels right and left, and upward rears,
With eyes of burning fire.

But leaden death is at his heart,
Vain all the strength he plies.
And, spouting blood from every part,
He reels, and sinks, and dies.

And now a dinsome clamor rose,
'Bout who should have his skin;
Who first draws blood, each hunter knows,
This prize must always win.

But who did this, and how to trace
What's true from what's a lie,
Like lawyers, in a murder case
They stoutly argufy.

Aforesaid fice, of blustering mood,
Behind, and quite forgot,
Just now emerging from the wood,
Arrives upon the spot.

With grinning teeth, and up-turned hair--
Brim full of spunk and wrath,
He growls, and seizes on dead bear,
And shakes for life and death.

And swells as if his skin would tear,
And growls and shakes again;
And swears, as plain as dog can swear,
That he has won the skin.

Conceited whelp! we laugh at thee--
Nor mind, that now a few
Of pompous, two-legged dogs there be,
Conceited quite as you.

President Abraham Lincoln's poem The Bear Hunt is an illustration
of his brilliance and sensitivity drowned
by his political aspirations and
desire to please those accompanying him.
He would go on to cause the
murder not only of over 600,000 Northern and Southern soldiers,
the deaths of untold numbers through Sherman's march to the sea, of
hundreds of thousands
of horses in the Civil War, draft resisters hanged if they did not
have the money to buy
their way out. France and the United Kingdomended slavery before the US
and without bloodshed.

With the Maryland GOP wanting to institute a bear hunt, (bears
are legally murdered in Canada,
in NH, PA, NY, NJ and other states)
there are 2 Republican presidents who have been involved
with bears. One was Teddy Roosevelt. When a bear cub he had
orphaned by killing his mother wandered into the camp fireside at
night, some of his party raised their rifles to
shoot the baby. He would not allow it. The teddy bear
was born.

 http://www.marylandbears.com

MAO TSE TUNG

"Genghis Khan, man of his epoch, ...
knew only how to hunt the great eagle. They are all gone.
Only today are we men of feeling."

-Mao Tse Tung-

"Even the plum tree is pleased with snow and doesn't care
about freezing or dying houseflies."

-Mao Tse Tung-

EMILY thingyINSON

If I shouldn't be alive
When the robin come
Give the one in red cravat
A memorial crumb

TO A MOUSE

-Robert Burns-

On Turning Her Up in Her Nest With The Plow

Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murd'ring pattle!
I'm truly sorry man's dominion
Has broken nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An' fellow mortal.
I doubt na, whiles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen icker in a thrave
'S a sma' request;
I'll get a blessin' wi' the lave,
An' ne'er miss't!
Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!
It's silly wa's the winds are strewin'!
An' naething, now, to build a new ane,
O' foggage green!
An' bleak December's winds ensuin',
Baith snell an' keen!
Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste,
An' weary winter comin' fast,
An' cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell —
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro' thy cell.
That wee bit heap o' leaves an' stibble,
Has cost thee mony a weary nibble!
Now thou's turned out, for a' thy trouble,
But house or hald,
To thole the winter's sleety dribble,
And cranreuch cauld!
But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid plans o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley,
An' leave us nought but grief and pain
For promised joy!
Still thou art blest, compared wi' me;
The present only toucheth thee:
But och! I backward cast my ee,
On prospects drear!
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
I guess an' fear!

(Lincoln the politician voices no concern for the bear
in this poem.)

THE RUNAWAY

-Robert Frost-

Once when the snow of the year was beginning to fall,
We stopped by a mountain pasture to say 'Whose colt?'
A little Morgan had one forefoot on the wall,
The other curled at his breast. He dipped his head
And snorted at us. And then he had to bolt.
We heard the miniature thunder where he fled,
And we saw him, or thought we saw him, dim and grey,
Like a shadow against the curtain of falling flakes.
'I think the little fellow's afraid of the snow.
He isn't winter-broken. It isn't play
With the little fellow at all. He's running away.
I doubt if even his mother could tell him, "Sakes,
It's only weather". He'd think she didn't know !
Where is his mother? He can't be out alone.'
And now he comes again with a clatter of stone
And mounts the wall again with whited eyes
And all his tail that isn't hair up straight.
He shudders his coat as if to throw off flies.
'Whoever it is that leaves him out so late,
When other creatures have gone to stall and bin,
Ought to be told to come and take him in.'



 http://www.egroups.com/messages/animalpoems
groups.msn.com/ar9/avpoetry.msnw

ROBERT SOUTHEY

Ah poor companion! when thou followed last
Thy master's parting footsteps to the gate
Which closed forever on him, thou dist lose
Thy best friend, and none was left to plead
for the old age of brute fidelity.
But fare thee well. Mine is no narrow creed.
And He who gave thee being did not frame
The mystery of life to be the sport
of merciless men. There is another world
For all that live and move.. a better one!
Where the proud bipeds, who would fain confine
Infinite goodness to the little bounds
of their own charity, may envy thee.

JOHN DONNE

Why are we by all creatures waited on?
Why do the prodigal elements supply
Life and food to me, being more pure than I,
Simple and further from corruption?
Why brook'st thou, ignorant horse, subjection?
Why dost thou bull, and boar so sillily
Dissemble weakness, and by one man's stroke die
Whose whole kind, you might swallow
and feed upon?
Weaker I am, woe is me, and worse than you,
You have not sinned, nor need be timorous
But wonder at a greater wonder, for to us
Created nature doth these things subdue.
But their Creator, whom sin, nor nature tied,
For us, his creatures, and his foes, hath died.

JOHN WESLEY

The whole brute creation will then, undoubtedly, be restored not
only to the vigour, strength, and swiftness which they had at their
creation, but to a far higher degree of each than they ever enjoyed...
Thus in that day all the vanity to which they are helplessly subject
will be abolished, they will suffer no more, either from within or
without. The days of their groaning are ended.
(In v 6 of his collected works, John Wesley, founder of the
Methodists, recounts he is a vegetarian.)

ST CYRIL OF JERUSALEM

He (the Holy Spirit) is supremely Great Power, divine and
unsearchable,
living and rational, and it belongs to Him to sanctify all beings that
were made by God through Christ.. It is the Holy Spirit
who knows the mysteries, searching all beings, even the depths of
God For there is one God.. one Lord.. and one Holy Spirit who has the
power to sanctify and deify all, who spoke in the Law and the Prophets

THOMAS A KEMPIS THE IMITATION OF CHRIST

And if thy heart be straight with God then every creature
shall be to thee a mirror of life and a book of holy doctrine
for there is no creature so little or so despised
but that sheweth and representeth the goodness of God.
from COMPASSION FOR ANIMALS by ed by Tom Regan and Andrew Linzey
*********

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Ever fresh the broad creation
A divine improvisation
From the heart of God proceeds
A single will, a million deeds
He is the heart of every creature
He is the meaning of each feature
And his mind is in the sky
Than all it holds more deep, more high

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of eleveated thoughts
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things all objects of all thought.
And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods
And mountains and of all that we behold
from this green earth

ST ATHANASIUS

The great Son is the glory of the Father
and shone out from Him like light.
He assumed a body
to bring help to suffering creatures.
He was sacrifice and celebrant,
sacrificial priest and God Himself.
He offered blood to God
to cleanse the entire world.

CARDINAL HINSLEY

Cruelty to animals is the degrading attitude of paganism.

ST ISAAC THE SYRIAN
Poor innocent little creatures (to animals bound for slaughter): if
you were reasoning beings and could speak you would curse us. For we
are the cause of your death, and what have you done to deserve
it?

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

And other eyes than ours
were made to look on flowers
Eyes of small birds and insects small
The deep sun-blushing rose
Round which the thingyles close
Opens her bosom to them all
The tiniest living thing
That soars on feathered wing,
Or crawls among the long
grass out of sight
Has just as good a right
To its appointed portion of delight
As any king.

AUGURIES OF INNOCENCE

-William Blake-

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wildflower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
and eternity in an hour.
A robin redbreast in a cage
puts all heaven in a rage.
A dove-house filled with doves and pigeons
Shudders Hell through all its regions.
A dog starved at his master's gate
Predicts the ruin of the state.
A horse misused upon the road
Calls to Heaven for human blood.
Each outcry of the hunted hare
A fibre from the brain does tear.
A skylark wounded in the wing
A cherubim does cease to sing.
The gamethingy clipped and armed for fight
Does the rising sun affright.
Every wolf's and lion's howl
Raises from Hell a human soul.
The wild deer wandering here and there
Keeps the human soul from care.
The lamb misused breeds public strife
And yet forgives the butcher's knife.
The bat that flits at close of eve
Has left the brain that won't believe.
The owl that calls upon the night
Speaks the unbeliever's fright.
He who shall hurt the little wren
Shall never be beloved by men.
He who the ox to wrath has moved
Shall never be by woman loved.
The wanton boy that kiklls the fly
Shall feel the spider's emnity.
He who torments the chafer's sprite
Weaves a bower in endless night.
The caterpillar on the leaf
Repeats to thee thy mother's grief
Kill not the moth nor butterfly
For the Lasdt Judgement draweth nigh.
Walter Matthau in Pete and Tillie:
The fish are having fun.. because
we haven't caught any of them

JESUS AND ANIMALS

Jesus chose to be born in a stable among donkeys and cows. He chose
to ride into His last week of life on a donkey. He said
the foxes have their lairs and the birds their nests.
He said the Father watches over the birds of the air.. the sparrows.
He became angry in the temple when His animals were butchered.
Proverbs 20: 23 Be not among the winebibbers nor the riotous
eaters of animal flesh.

-O Anna Niemus-

REACHABLE STAR or
HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD IN FIVE HOURS


Henry went to hospital
Twas Bethesda Naval
and took a picture of an ape
in a restraining chair.
And took it to an international
picture wire
called Black Star
which sent it round the world..
and Gandhi saw and knew
that violated was the treaty
.. and she cancelled monkey export
.. because Henry in 5 hours
.. cared to reach for
.. one bright and reachable... star!

(S Shriver, dedicated to Henry Spira, student of Peter Singer,
whose genius compassion and Archimedes
Lever caused his teacher to write about him)

KILLING TIME

-Joyce Pearce-
joyce@...@guildford.co.ukjoyce@...

When Autumn days grow shorter
And Christmas time draws nigh
Then kindly British people
Will heave a patient sigh.
For custom now requires them
To move both heaven and earth
To celebrate with gusto
The gentle Baby's Birth.
So bank accounts are emptied,
The Prince of Peace to praise
With whisky, wine or lager,
And never mind who pays.
Then as the Day approaches,
The menu must be planned,
The Son of Love to honour
Across this gentle land.
To celebrate this Season
Of nation-wide Good Will
Pigs, chickens, geese and turkeys
Are fattened for the kill,
While countless Christmas carols
Ascend to heaven above,
In praise of One who taught us
The way of perfect Love.



ANIMALS ARE PASSING FROM OUR LIVES

-Philip Levine-

It's wonderful how I jog
on four honed-down ivory toes
my massive buttocks slipping
like oiled parts with each light step.

I'm to market. I can smell
the sour, grooved block, I can smell
the blade that opens the hole
and the pudgy white fingers

that shake out the intestines
like a hankie. In my dreams
the snouts drool on the marble,
suffering children, suffering flies,

suffering the consumers
who won't meet their steady eyes
for fear they could see. The boy
who drives me along believes

that any moment I'll fall
on my side and drum my toes
like a typewriter or squeal
and nuts like a new housewife

discovering television,
or that I'll turn like a beast
cleverly to hook his teeth
with my teeth. No. Not this pig.



 http://www.poemhunter.com/philip-levine/poet-8952/



A GIRL AND HER HORSE COMPANION

-Connie Salamone-

Tiny hands grip a course hairy mane,
way up there, she must be quite insane.
A small body on a big body.
Massive neck hugged, eyes squeezed, oh Lordy.
She's squealing now, both spines rippling,
young legs a flaying, head a tossing,
walking, trotting, and a galloping.
A mutual ride for horse and girl,
four eyes, two heads, eight limbs, one tail.
Over the hills and down through the dale,
There goes one moving silhouette,
Thumpering, laughing, -what is it but...
A sweet New Hampshire country lass,
and her neighing, snorting horsey pal.



SHOOTING RATS AT THE BIBB COUNTY DUMP

-by David Bottoms -

Loaded on beer and whiskey, we ride
to the dump in carloads
to turn our headlights across the wasted field,
freeze the startled eyes of rats against mounds of rubbish.

Shot in the head, they jump only once, lie still
like dead beer cans.
Shot in the gut or rump, they writhe and try to burrow
into garbage, hide in old truck tires,
rusty oil drums, cardboard boxes scattered across the mounds,
or else drag themselves on forelegs across our beams of light
toward the darkness at the edge of the dump.

It's the light they believe kills.
We drink and load again, let them crawl
for all they're worth into the darkness we're headed for.

( David Bottoms, one of Georgia's poet laureates
Robert Penn Warren gave high praise to the above poem
which through sheer description
magnifies the cruelty humans visit on rats (not only
at dumps but by 'health' department genocide,
by pharmaceutical, military, and university lab infliction
of torture etc.)

THE SEVEN SORROWS

-Ted Hughes-

The first sorrow of autumn
Is the slow goodbye
Of the garden who stands so long in the evening-
A brown poppy head,
The stalk of a lily,
And still cannot go.

The second sorrow
Is the empty feet
Of a pheasant who hangs from a hook with his brothers.
The woodland of gold
Is folded in feathers
With its head in a bag.

And the third sorrow
Is the slow goodbye
Of the sun who has gathered the birds and who gathers
The minutes of evening,
The golden and holy
Ground of the picture.

The fourth sorrow
Is the pond gone black
Ruined and sunken the city of water-
The beetle's palace,
The catacombs
Of the dragonfly.

And the fifth sorrow
Is the slow goodbye
Of the woodland that quietly breaks up its camp.
One day it's gone.
It has only left litter-
Firewood, tentpoles.

And the sixth sorrow
Is the fox's sorrow
The joy of the huntsman, the joy of the hounds,
The hooves that pound
Till earth closes her ear
To the fox's prayer.

And the seventh sorrow
Is the slow goodbye
Of the face with its wrinkles that looks through the window
As the year packs up
Like a tatty fairground
That came for the children.

THE CATTLE TRAIN

-Charlotte Perkins Gilman-

Below my window goes the cattle train,
And stands for hours along the river park,
Fear, Cold, Exhaustion, Hunger, Thirst and
Pain;
Dumb brutes we call them - Hark!
The bleat of frightened mother -calling young,
Deep-throated agony, shrill frantic cries,
Hoarse murmur of the thirst-distended tongue
Up to my window rise.
Bleak lies the shore to northern wind and sleet,
In open-slatted cars they stand and freeeze
Beside the broad blue river in the heat
All waterless go these.
Hot, fevered, frightened, trampled, bruised
and torn;
Frozen to death before the ax descends;
We kill these weary creatures; sore and worn,
And eat them-- with our friends.



THE BULL CALF

-Henry Bailey Stevens-
author of THE RECOVERY OF CULTURE

Well sonny! Come along,
Swinging your little tail!
This is the price you have to pay
for being born a male.

Moo moo old cow!
And start a hunger strike.
Lots of us have to do
Things that we don't like.

Lots of us have to suffer;
Don't let it spoil your meal
This is the price you have to pay
Somebody wants some veal.

Don't take it too hard, old cow;
I'm sorry you've got so wild;
But somebody's got an appetite
And wants to eat your child.


SADISTS

-Linn A. E. Gale-

I saw
A cruel cat
In heartless playfulness
Poking back and forth
A tiny helpless birdlet,
Too young for feathers,
Too weak to peep in protest,
Until finally the purring feline
Thrust the wee thing
Head-first, into her mouth,
And sat crunching contenedly
Quivering flesh and thread-like bones.
I watched
Sadistic humans
In blase comfort
Neatly slice carcasses
Of beings that loved life and felt pain
No less than they.
And meanwhile I observed
Puzzled wondering why
So many heads are hollow,
So many mean are walking beasts,
So much brutality blots the land,
Such epidemics of violence,
Such vertigos of sensuality
Inoculate and intoxicate the race.


THE MOUSE TRAP

-Robert Wallace-
in the New Yorker
sent by Deanna Krantz

A mouse the trap had slapped on, but not caught
stood in the floor
bloody -whiskered, in the curious light
snapped on from the kitchen door

Grooved in the gray skull-fur
where the steel spring banged him,
blood from his ears, and one of 2 bead-black eyes
popped almost out, and hanging

looking his bad luck, he sheered through doors.
rooms. halls, waddled along walls,
was exposed behind dressers,
hobbling with the load of his pain through falls.

bumps, skics, until the portable (peaces-can)
prison (from the trash sack) fell
into place, changing the hellishly lighted chambers
to a pleasurably blackened cell

as comfortable as his hole, but showing
a scar of light around the rim.
A shirt cardboard slid under-moving floor
and gathered him

into the lurch and claw- slipping tilt and
ride of air, and bore
him giddy, sloping and scratching
out the back door

to the yellow porch lit and midnight lawn
and slid free his small terror
into the matty, spiny grass that held him like rails,
Shadowy, his executioner

choosing (over drowning or crushing)
the doubtful love of a gun,
loomed over him, unready, tall. Unsteadily
he tried to run and the world blurred, un-

til he sat gathering his shakes in the grass blades
The long-barrelled (22 target) revolver lowered
to arm's length
from the panting, furred bird-ribs not yet dead

and aimed, and fired-
six irregular shots
that drove deep their thunderous metal seeds
into the earth in spots

all around the tiny breath
they were meant for, spurting up yellow-brown
fountains of dir
as before some palace, circus: forest, pillars, a
kind of crown

in the noise and light of the murdering storm
That poor marksman, love
clicked, quietly
ticked, reloading, far, far, far above

the withered and dumb and dirt-daubled mouse
Then light and leaden rain
Stomped down again, and one blind iron tear
flooded all the sap of his pain

into the earth along with its leaving
indistinguishable in the churned-up lawn-
a flattened and sucked-out pelt
of half-buried once-mouse, now mouse-gone

ODE TO THE POOR MAN'S CRICKET

-Tom Earley-

Although they steal my food
within the walls of my humble home
I endeavor never to be rude

And when I outen the lights
These peaceful creatures are free to roam
For even the meek
have their rights

ISAIAH

Isaiah 11:6-9 (King James Version)

6 The lion also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie
down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling
together; and a little child shall lead them.

7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down
together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the
weaned child shall put his hand on the thingyatrice' den.

9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the
earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover
the sea.

A MODERN GOLDEN CALF

-Earnest A Webbe-

In Cleveland's toughtest quarter,
The famous "Tenderloin"
(Fit namesake for the choicest cut
Of steak for honest coin)
Where dives and tough resorts abound,
Saloons and salry brokers,
Gambling joints and "uncle shops"
And homes for highway chokers,
You'll find a building tall and square
Low'ring o'er the railroad,
Which brings from peaceful pastures fair,
Poor creatures by the trainload;
A smell of blood makes thick the air,
Mute terror in each creature's stare-
Brute men running everywhere,
Their robes with blood aglare!
And on the building's lofty roof,
Like Aaron's calf of old
There rears, that every eye may see
A steer of burnished gold!
For ever this sacrifice goes on
And Christians bend the knee
Nor stop to think their honest coin
Sustains idolatry!

-Earnest A Webbe-

The last 5 poems reproduced by
The Millenium Guild.. in their literature

WHAT METHUSALEH ATE

-John Harvey Kellogg, MD)

What Methusalah ate
was not on a plate..
For paradise meat* fruit.. as in Gen 1: 29
was delicious to eat

And kept him in finest condition
and twas hung on trees
and not made to please
the deadly Live Stock Commission

No fish was he fed
no blood did he shed
And he knew when he had
eaten enough

And so it is plain
He'd no cause to complain
Of steaks that were measly or tough

Or bearded beef grimy
Green moldy and slimy
Of cold -storage turkeys and putrid beefsteaks
With millions of colon germs
Hams full of trichina worms
And sausages writhing
with rheumatic aches

Old methusalah

(The Bible says the vegetarian Methusalah reached an age of
969 years)


(published in Vegetarian America by Karen Iacobbo)
(John Harvey Kellogg MD fought the meat cartels for many
decades and published numerous studies including the assessment of
colon bacteria (ecoli) which multiplies in the billions within 4 hours of
the creature's murder)


OF JOY AND RODENTS

-Sai Grafio-

Who is to say that being here is not glorious even
In the most squalid of existence; even in the streets
Festering with garbage, being here is a joyous thing.

Tell the blind woman, blind since birth, that joy is non
Existent; her hyper-extended senses would tell you that
She sensed and loved the tiny feet of mice eating her cheese.

The most visible of happiness occurs when, without the
Expectation of result, something explicable happens; and
That is, the unexpected joy that Sisyphus could not imagine.

For all the rats eating our grain and causing continual
Scourges, they teach us to value life as they endure the
Hatred and interminable tortures of laboratory animals.

Our age builds an enormous citadel of power; formless as
The extensive stress it exacts on us. It no longer respects any
Temples; however, the rat teaches us the temple of survival

The whole family of rodentia is our guru; from rabbits we
Learn to spawn our progeny; from squirrels we learn to
Economize in lean times and from mice we learn humility.

Their veins flow with existence without a Bill of Rights;
What makes us think that we have more entitlements; let
Us love our rodent brothers and chew on life as they do.

INVISIBLE MITE

"At the base of the eyelash is an invisible
mite.
Ask not what your mite can do for you
but what you can do for your mite.
And remember, mite makes right."

-J Ritchey-

LAMENT OF A DOG GONE

The rain fell hard, the wind blew fast
The moon had hid from view
And still she howled up on the hill
Where she had last seen you
She stayed up there# on top of hill
Since the day you went to war
She stayed through suno she stayed through rain
Her health had grown so poor
She would not eatp nor would she sleep
But wait for your return
Until about three weeks ago
I had not seen of her
Then she came home, she did not moan
But lay beside your rocking chair
She seemed at ease, she had found peace
She seemed content to wait
She seemed to know the day would come
The day of your return

Two weeks ago I got a note
I knew before I read
No day would come when you'd return
I knew son, you were dead
As I read I moaned a moan, the dog looked up at me
She's gone now son, I guess she must have known
Because that night as I lay in bed
I could hear her mournfull cry
It seemed to echo just like words
Saying, "Why did master die"
The rain came down, the wind it blew
I heard her crying son
For you
One morning I went out to see
If she would come to eat
I found her son, on top of hill
With your old hat down at her feet
She lay there son, she did not move
So thint so sick, so lonely
I picked her up, I brought her home
I made a wooden box
I buried her sont up on the hill
So she can wait for you

And now on nights, when the wind does blow
And the moon is hid from sight
I can hear the echoes of her cries
She will not leave her plight
I know now son, the love she felt
For one so dear as you
She'll rest no more on the hill my son
Till dark of night is through
She'll rest no more on the hill my son
Untill peace has come to you

-Owl, aka Sharkfin-


-----
WOULD YOU EAT YOUR DOG FOR CHRISTMAS?

-Jenny Moxham-

Would you eat your dog for Christmas?
Would you carve her up with a knife?
Then why eat the innocent turkey
Who is just as deserving of life?

Would you kill your kitten for festive fare?
Would you serve her sliced on a tray?
Then why treat the harmless and fun-loving pig
In this heartless and horrible way?

If you think the idea quite shocking,
To murder and slice up your pet,
It is equally shameful and shocking,
To do it to those you've not met.

For a hog treasures life just as much as a dog
And a turkey as much as a cat,
And they all have a right to their God given life,
It's simply as simple as that.

So when you go shopping at Christmas,
And pass by the enormous array,
Of tragic young plastic-wrapped corpses,
Whose lives have been taken away,

Make a vow that you'll buy only 'peaceable' fare
And refuse to partake in the kill,
For I'm sure you'll agree that's the way it should be
In this season of Peace and Goodwill.




THE DEATH OF THE OLD PLYMOUTH ROCK HEN

(whose decision to challenge
Lyndon Johnson for the presidency
was a factor in Lyndon Johnson's
resignation)

It was tragic when her time came
After a lifetime of laying brown eggs
Among the white of leghorns.
Now, unattractive to the rooster,
Laying no more eggs,
Faking it on other hens' nests,
Caught in the act,
Taken to the woodpile
In the winter of execution.

A quick stroke of the axe,
One first and last upward cast
Of eyes that in life
Had looked only down,
Scanning the ground for seeds and worms
And for the shadow of the hawk.
Now those eyes are covered
By yellow lids,
Closing from the bottom up.

Decapitated, she did not act
Like a chicken with its head cut off.
No pirouettes, no somersaults,
No last indignity.
Like an English queen, she died.
On wings that had never known flight.
She flew, straight into the woodpile,
And there beat out slow death
While her curdled voice ran out in blood.

A scalding and a plucking of no purpose.
No goose feathers for a comforter.
No duck's down for a pillow.
No quill for a pen.
In the opened body, no entrail message for the haruspex.
Not one egg of promise in the oviduct.
In the gray gizzard, no diamond or emerald,
But only half-ground corn,
Sure evidence of unprofitability.
The breast and legs,
The wings and thighs,
The strong heart,
The pope's nose,
Fit only for chicken soup and stew.
And then in March, near winter's end,
When bloodied and feathered wood is used,
The odor of burnt offerings
Above the kitchen stove.

-by Senator Eugene McCarthy-
his presidential candidacy in 1968 forced the
resignation of Lyndon Baines Johnson

BASHO

Furu ike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto

Into the ancient pond
A frog jumps
The sound of water!

Basho translated by D.T. Suzuki

**

FRAGMENTS FROM BROTHER JAMES
MARCUS

The sweet rain has stilled the voice
of the winged ones.
*
My cat Jack thinks the Bible
is his foldout bed.

DONNA DONNA SHALOM SECUNDA

-sung by Joan Baez-

On a wagon bound for market
lay a calf with 2 mournful eyes
lay a calf with 2 mournful eyes
High above him there is a swallow
Winging swoftliy through the sky
Chorus
How the winds are laughing
They laugh with all their might
Laugh and laugh the whole day trough
And half the summer's night
Donna donna donna donna
Donna donna donna do
Donna donna donna donna
Donna donna donna do
Stop complaining said the farmer
Who told you what had to be
Why can't you have wings to fly with
Like a swallow so proud and free
Chorus
Calves are easily bound and slaughtered
Never knowing the reason why
Why can't you have wings to fly with
Like a swallow you've learned to fly

WORDS OF JESUS

Jesus did not say
to preach to every nation
Jesus said to preach
to all creation

Anthony of Padua obeyed..
and preached to the fishes
so great his holiness
that they listened
their heads out of the water
as the sun on them glistened

(to every creature Mark 16: 15)

-O Anna Niemus-


BISON

Softly cross the furled edge of the plains!
Thou vast herds, now gone
I see you yet, though obscured by time
Mighty thunder blazing your trail
Thousand hooves beating the earth
Like a fierce battle cry of old
We come! We come!

But 'twas the pale ones who came
They who destroy and befoul
And your sleek hides they made to hats
To wear in filthy factories blazing
With the fires of a thousand hells
Lighting the skies where once your hooves
Dusted, but now decayed by smoke

Your proud multitudes gone now
Rendered into a bit of bone here
And a piece of tail there
An aching remnant of what was once glory
And passed into the bowels of yesterday
Remembered like an almost grasped dream

-VITW-

UNTITLED

The sun breaks like silent thunder
a boiling blister of light on the horizon
as the ancient Earth slides 'round again
New day dawning, dancing 'cross the Mother
all her children wake and rising
to greet the light again.

I watch this dance in frozen wonder
and all the dancers, perfectly placed
tiny birds a singing mobile chorus
once dreaming rabbits darting yonder
slow steps danced by grazing horses
quick steps by colts alive with grace.

This dance has spiraled on for eons
long before the rise of Man
interrupted with our clumsy need
and will go one once Man has fallen
lost because his lack of appreciation
for the beautiful dance beyond his greed.

-VITW-


MAO TSE TUNG

"Genghis Khan, man of his epoch, ...
knew only how to hunt the great eagle. They are all gone.
Only today are we men of feeling."

-Mao Tse Tung-

"Even the plum tree is pleased with snow and doesn't care
about freezing or dying houseflies."

-Mao Tse Tung-



SPARROW

(a fragment of a poem
by Edna St Vincent Millay)

There was a time I stood and watched
The small ill-natured sparrows' fray
I loved the beggar that I fed,
I cared for what he had to say.

BARELY A TWELVEMONTH AFTER

Barely a twelvemonth after
The seven days war that put the world to sleep,
Late in the evening the strange horses came.
By then we had made our covenant with silence,
But in the first few days it was so still
We listened to our breathing and were afraid.
On the second day
The radios failed; we turned the knobs, no answer.
On the third day a warship passed us, headed north,
Dead bodies piled on the deck. On the sixth day
A plane plunged over us into the sea. Thereafter
Nothing. The radios dumb;
And still they stand in corners of our kitchens,
And stand, perhaps, turned on, in a million rooms
All over the world. But now if they should speak,
If on a sudden they should speak again,
If on the stroke of noon a voice should speak,
We would not listen, we would not let it bring
That old bad world that swallowed its children quick
At one great gulp. We would not have it again.
Sometimes we think of the nations lying asleep,
Curled blindly in impenetrable sorrow,
And then the thought confounds us with its strangeness.
The tractors lie about our fields; at evening
They look like dank sea-monsters crouched and waiting.
We leave them where they are and let them rust:
"They'll molder away and be like other loam."
We make our oxen drag our rusty plows,
Long laid aside. We have gone back
Far past our fathers' land.
And then, that evening
Late in the summer the strange horses came.
We heard a distant tapping on the road,
A deepening drumming; it stopped, went on again
And at the corner changed to hollow thunder.
We saw the heads
Like a wild wave charging and were afraid.
We had sold our horses in our fathers' time
To buy new tractors. Now they were strange to us
As fabulous steeds set on an ancient shield
Or illustrations in a book of knights.
We did not dare go near them. Yet they waited,
Stubborn and shy, as if they had been sent
By an old command to find our where



*  http://www.animalrightshistory.org
*  http://www.postpoems.com/members/animalpoems
 http://www.worldanimalnet.org
 http://www.ivu.org
 http://www.meatout.org
 http://www.stopanimaltests.com
 http://www.lobsterlib.com
 http://www.christianveg.com
 http://www.hindu.org
 http://www.plumvillage.org
 http://episcoveg.webblogger.com
 http://www.jewishveg.com/schwartz
 http://peta.net/feat/military
 http://www.notmilk.com
 http://spot.acorn.net/fruitarian
 http://stopmowing.blogspot.com