Elephant Armageddon



     They return to the site whence they came with eyes tearful,
with psalms trumpeting the air.
They stand ever so watchful;
guarding the graves of their ghosts and their kind.
They shall not forget.  They shall not want.
They lie down in green silky pastures
and finding their way to the still waters.
They restore and nourish their soul.
They walk through the dark valleys; always the shadows
of death lurking behind them.
Always striding till they reach the comforting light.
They fear no evil.  Man fears.
They forage for food and they eat amongst their enemies
because they fear not.  They are the happiest.
The honey is under their tongue.
The winter is past, the rain is over and gone.
Their hearts awaken.  They know no violence.
Even in the waning light they tower over all else.
They are the landscape.  They are the trees.
They throw up the dust in their dance.  The skies become misty.
They rise up and lead each other away into the dusk.

About this poem

NYTimes headline for September 4th 2012: Elephants Dying in Epic Frenzy As Ivory Fuels Wars and Profits

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Written on 2017

Submitted by Drone232 on August 12, 2022

Modified on March 05, 2023

55 sec read
7

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABACDEEFGHIJKLMNOPKQR
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 952
Words 186
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 21

Gerard Malanga

Poet and photographer Gerard Malanga, the son of Italian immigrants, was raised in the Bronx borough of New York City. Malanga began writing poetry as a teenager, and has published numerous books of poetry, including chic death (1971), Mythologies of the Heart (1996), No Respect: New And Selected Poems 1964-2000 (2001), and Cool & Other Poems (2019). Influenced by poets Paul Blackburn, Charles Olson and Charles Simic, Malanga’s expansive, free-verse poetry often engages themes of perception and intimacy. As he notes in a 2002 interview with Richard Marshall for 3am Magazine, “I've always thought of poetry as an introverted process whereas photography has always been an extroverted process. But they both involve the eye to a certain extent — both the inner eye and the outer eye.” more…

All Gerard Malanga poems | Gerard Malanga Books

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    "Elephant Armageddon" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/134228/elephant-armageddon>.

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