Inspired by our time at Thailand’s Elephant Nature Park, I gave my brain a workout and created a poem in the palindrome style. Palindromes read the same forward as backward – a bit tricky, but fun to try and capture the essence of the message within the structure.
This one – A Palindrome for Pachyderms – tells the story of elephants used and abused for the tourism trade who are rescued and given a chance to remember the wild. You can learn more about this transformation from my blog about our time at the park.
A Palindrome for Pachyderms
Wild.
Fiercely Captured.
Rising spirits crushed.
From birth clans abandoned.
Alone.
Back-breaking rides of joy –
of service.
Pearly – only – treasures stolen.
Hooks blinded. Human.
Now kept longer. No.
Saved.
No longer kept.
Now human, blinded, hooks stolen treasures.
Only pearly service of joy rides.
Breaking back alone.
Abandoned clans birth from
crushed spirits rising – captured.
Fiercely wild.
