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This is a beautiful collection, in which some thirty-one poets share their work

‘to celebrate elephants in the hope that people will find a way to safeguard those that manage to remain.’

Elephants are a multitude of things to many. In here they are muse; inspirational beings to be treasured, protected, respected, admired. But on these pages, there is also grief, fear and anger over the destruction of their habitat and the poaching of their ivory. I will never forget an image I saw of an elephant whose face had literally been sliced off for its tusks. How anyone can commit such an atrocity is beyond human capacity, and yet not it seems.

The proceeds from this anthology help orphan elephants via The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, which runs the most successful orphan-elephant rescue and rehabilitation program in the world.  And I will leave you with a poem by Valerie Morton, who is also the publisher, as well as one of the many fine poets featured.

The Elephant on my Mantlepiece

(after Salvador Dali)

 

floats on spidery, footless legs

of desire, its body

carrying

 

a heavy burden, tottering as if

the world could fall

into the sand

 

or float away into the thin air

of temptation

tight-tailed,

 

straining to carry the world’s sin,

shackled only by gravity –

a reminder

 

that without the uncertain nature

of survival, man’s lust

and greed

 

will end its very existence.