Day 674 of the daily poems. Our poet today, Rosemary Drescher, writes: “I have recently collaborated with a local artist, Victoria Dessau, whose paintings are currently in an exhibition at the Heysham Library. Ten of her paintings are accompanied by my poems, including this found poem, ‘Elephant Park’. The text is based on wording from the World Wildlife Fund’s Field Report on Elephants, 2024. There are only two words of my own that I added – unchained and enchained. The justification of the text along the righthand margin appeared to me as if the words were pushing against a wall, as an elephant might put its head to an obstacle.”
Elephant Park
– a found poem
big characters with the hide
of a matriarch in natural habitat
bachelor bulls, shy idlers
and bold explorers built for life
unchained
their outsized features giant
ears, how many muscles
make sense, work a trunk
with phenomenal power
lip and nose fused
can smell out a secret
push over a tree
caress a keeper
trumpet
dual citizens crossing borders
travelling huge distances
strike whole crop fields
under cover of darkness
so communities retaliate
gird their fields with ropes
of pungent chilli and bees
that see off elephants
Dumbo with huge tusks,
killed for ivory trinkets,
stateless in captivity
enchained
Rosemary Drescher
(from the World Wildlife Fund Field Report on
elephants, Summer 2024)