This is no game....Great Hunter / Nature's Duality....poem © 1996 Carlyle Matthew. Sometime in 1996, walking along Robson Street Vancouver Yale University Kenya
In his book, Mr. Beard dramatically captured through stories, historical photographs and paintings done by Kamante Gatura (Karen Blixen’s house steward), the destruction of large animals in East Africa all in the name of sport.
The images were vivid and compelling. The artist was so deeply moved by the images of bleached white bones, the peril suffered by the animals and stories about life in the region that he set about completing the near 5 foot maskulpture entitled: Great Hunter / Nature’s Duality and the poem that accompanies it.
The poem Great Hunter / Nature’s Duality speaks to our relationship with other inhabitants of this planet and the manner in which some of them are treated….it hints at our role as stewards and questions the necessity of some hunts. There’s a saying in the Islands of Trinidad and Tobago : “What’s joke for schoolboy is death for crapaud (frog).” Kicking a hapless frog (crapaud/crapo) or tossing it into the air with sticks on the way home from school, may compel hearty laughter and seem like great fun to schoolchildren not knowing better…to the frog it’s a matter of life and death.
Hunting “game” may be seen as a sport for many when fridges are full and there’s easy access to food. For the animals hunted, it takes on a totally different meaning.
Great Hunter/ Nature’s Duality (c) 1996 Carlyle N. Matthew
This is no game
-What a shame…
Dichotomy of compassion/ barbarism,
love- filled anger / humanism,
flip flopping, duality wording,
calling destruction by another ism…
No great need, just straight greed and self- imperialism.
Come on...begin the hunt
hunters ready…
Freezers chock-full
no bloody hunger/ bloody cornucopia of bounty…
Cornucopia of beauty,
of animals dying, people crying
mesmerized, traumatized, anaesthetized
by this love/ hate brutality….
Still ....
We gotta bring down the game!
Fair game, no blame, no chance
-no shame
Cull the population…
no resistance from a distance
Kill ! Overpopulation
-lest starvation sets in.
Rogue on a rampage, animal treason
more reason, for continued death season
Boredom, superstardom , machomoodom
Economic man, sports man, Reasonable man
Human ?...You say.
"Man...this is some kinda sport".
Great Hunter, 'Spiritual prey', called Predator
making haste, laying waste
never tasting only devastating...Life
Intolerant to diversity not adversity
no need for reason for strife.
Trophy hunter's - Safari
Conservationists - so sorry
Humankind - no worry
It is only fair game
No soul, no sadness, no trepidation
Time for celebration
Hail! 'Another seven foot trophy' .
Wild animals
-Aliens on Earth
while man searches wildly for intelligent life
-creating strife
- signalling space ward
dead silence, no reward
Oh my, I wonder why
all invitations declined?
Global warming
Killer Bees swarming
El Nino warning
Catastrophe brewing
Yes!
Predator conniving to maximize dues.
Shoot it, maim it, hurt it, kill it,
cage it, train it , exploit it, enslave it
Game today,
gone tomorrow
Mighty great hunter
even greater sorrow
Holocaust today,
never tomorrow
Never again
when this one ends.
We heard that one many times before.
---Oh collective soul....
cry not for the Whale, nor the Elephant,
nor for the forests when there are no more trees
Contemplate not wailing for the great hunter,
wailing and lamenting on both knees.
Shed no tears for 'The Mother'...Earth,
who has recycled herself before.....
providing rare opportunities for myriad kinds of life,
to share and learn on her earth once more.
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