Endangered Animal Species Day: In Need of Poetic Representation!

Traditionally the 3rd Friday of May, I was excited by the prospect of celebrating the occasion with poems about Toucans; Rhinos; Prairie Dogs; Bald Eagles; Snow Leopards etc., but, couldn't find any! I rejected the few trite 'humorous' efforts I came across, and kept searching....and searching.....

Eventually, I found a poem by someone I'd never heard of - until I dug a little deeper, and discovered that Australian poet, Judith Wright, was well known for being an environmental activist, and advocate for Aboriginal rights. 

EXTINCT BIRDS

Charles Harpur in his journals long ago

(written in hope and love, and never printed)

recorded the birds of his time's forest -

birds long vanished with the fallen forest -

described in copperplate on unread pages.

The scarlet satin-bird, swung like a lamp in berries,

he watched in love, and then in hope described it.

There was a bird, blue, small, spangled like dew.

All now are vanished with the fallen forest.

And he, unloved, past hope, was buried,

who helped with proud stained hands to fell the forest,

and set those birds in love on unread pages;

yet thought himself immortal, being a poet.

And is he not immortal, where I found him,

in love and hope, along his careful pages? -

the poet vanished, in the vanished forest,

among his brightly tinted extinct birds?

Judith Wright.

          

                       

Her poem sent me off on a new trail of inquiry; just who was Charles Harpur? Well, he was one of the 1st well-known Australian poets; one of the first-born of the European transportation; keen to write about the wildness of his home environment, and share his views and beliefs. I also learned there's a whole genre of ecopoetry, and ecopoets. 

     

       

Our last White Rhino, Sudan: extinct.

Practices have changed. A lot has changed for the better; those things that were commonly taken for granted, i.e.  Big Game Hunting is now no longer a vaunted past time; and commercial slaughter radically reduced.

   

There was an arrogance to our forefathers who prided themselves on 'discovering' lands; tribes, and new species of flora and fauna. I like how Margaret Atwood gently, firmly restores the correct balance and perspective; with an echo of resonance in Byron.

             

But still, I was seeking out poetry expressly about some of the creatures that are on the endangered list. I found a book aimed at children that puts together facts and 'gentle verse', and through it, learned that 150 species become extinct every year.

         

             

I found something submitted on twitter by Sally Wen Mao, addressing the general issue, and a passage by Fernando Pessoa: 

       

                                                                                                              

Incredibly surprised to discover George Bernard Shaw's vehemently held views:

                   

I was gathering material, learning much along the way, but all the while riffling through all the many poetry anthologies I possess, and assaulting Google on several fronts and differing angles, yet not finding any poems about the animals I was looking for. 

What if, one day, a poem is all that is left of that particular creature? And we don't even have that! 

We have War Poets - it appears we may also need Animal Poets - the Poet Advocate of Disappearing Species; an Endangered Animal Poet Laureate to represent these beautiful creatures, missing from archives and anthologies, just as they are from their natural habitats; to bring greater awareness of the treasure we have now - before it's too late.