Let Man Lay Down Rifles to be Ally

On By Lauren Scott, AuthorIn Poetry

I was finally able to take some photos of these wonderful elephants that I pass by every day. They’re on the side of the building for Johnny Doughnuts. And I always think of my good friend, Resa, because she is the discoverer of fabulous murals that she shares on her blog, graffitiluxandmurals.com. After reading The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony and An Elephant in My Kitchen by Francois Malby-Anthony, I fell head over heals with these magnificent animals. But as we all know, poaching is rampant for elephants. I can’t even wrap my head around this horrific deed and the heartless humans behind it. Anyway, a poem began to brew and a sonnet began to form. The iambic pentameter isn’t perfect, but so be it. Thus, I offer you my ‘somewhat sonnet.’

Let Man Lay Down Rifles to be Ally

If only humans could absorb lessons
From the largest mammals walking the earth.
Their big hearts bursting with kind expressions,
A principle comprising golden worth.

If only humans would shed their black greed,
Knives and guns stealing an innocent life.
Torturing for the sale of ivory
Beneath a darkened sky, spine-chilling cries.

Allowing these creatures to play their part
Would aid ecosystems they occupy.
No bullets tearing through a gentle heart…
Let man lay down rifles to be ally.

But greed, a power tough to relinquish –
Is this a pipe dream best to extinguish?

(I end with a question to ponder, but a rhetorical question because good-hearted man will always fight the greedy heartless to protect these amazing mammals that are vital to the ecosystems they inhabit.)

Lauren Scott, Baydreamerwrites ©2024 – All rights reserved.

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80 thoughts on “Let Man Lay Down Rifles to be Ally”

  3. Lauren the murals are amazing.
    Loved the sonnet my friend 💕
    It provokes much thought !
    It is heartbreaking that these majestic animals are hunted along with so many others.😪
    Thank you for sharing 🙏🫂🙏

    1. I’m glad you loved the murals and my sonnet, Maggie. Thank you! And the poaching is beyond heartbreaking for elephants, rhinos, and other animals who lose their lives to man. Thanks so much for your lovely words, my friend. ❤️🌷🤗

      1. It was my pleasure to read Lauren.
        Well done for raising awareness my friend.
        When greed drives it is the innocent who suffer, in this case the elephants, rhinos and many other animsls.
        To make handbags or shoes, or place as trophies on walls 😡 absolutely heartbreaking !
        Have a wonderful day Lauren
        Hugs ❤️🙏🤗

    2. Dear Lauren and Maggie,

      I very much enjoy your lively conversation here and have come to join you.

      Lauren, I love your poem in earnest and concur with Maggie! I am very touched and impressed by your rallying cry entitled “Let Man Lay Down Rifles to be Ally” as expressed through your excellent poem. I cannot agree with you more. How sad it is that such deplorable ways of thinking about the environment and nonhumans persist! And how arrogant some folks could be in their attitudes towards Nature, and in erroneously believing that they know the inner workings of Nature!

      Many people often mistakenly believe that the word “conservation” automatically implies “environmentally friendly”. Unfortunately, the images and ideals associated with those quoted words often conceal the more sinister and unpalatable aspects of market environmentalism, in which the word “conservation” really refers to managing wildlife populations, often involving culling any animal that certain interest groups want to be managed or even exterminated. The deplorable situation can become entrenched and perpetuated through ignorance, fear, power, greed, propaganda and resource exploitation. As a result, certain state and federal authorities as well as conservation policy-makers frequently fail to holistically adopt and recognise the best practices in environmental sustainability aimed at improving ecological wellbeing, especially when some politicians enact laws or when certain administrations pass regulations that are suited to the short-sighted interests of their wealthy supporters, eager stakeholders and targeted constituencies. In short, there has been no shortage of agents trying to turn some wildlife conservation areas into playgrounds for hunters and misguided ecotourism through lobbying and legislation.

      For example, there is a great deal of hypocrisy in groups calling themselves “Sportsmen for Fish & Wildlife” insofar as they have the audacity and impudence to refer to either fish or widlife in their name when it is patent that they have the intention of making it easier for people to just kill whatever animals that they choose. Numerous hunters who claim to be advocating for wildlife conservation are actually only interested in making sure that there are plenty of elk and mule deer to shoot. Moreover, they demonize wolves because such animals are large mammal predators, to the extent that they have often gravely misunderstood the wolf, an apex predator from which our long-domesticated pooches have evolved, and without which there would not have been human’s best friends and nonhuman companions, not to mention that without the wolf long deemed by ecologists as a keystone species, the ecosystem would be dramatically different, progressively weakened or cease to exist altogether.

      Nearly ten years ago, on 23 August 2013, the two-part documentary film “Expedition Wolf” was aired on television with the following caption:

      The second episode in this engaging two part natural history series follows the fortunes of one very special pack of wolves as they return to North America’s West Coast.

      Wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan and his team of wolf experts spend four weeks camping out in the bitterly cold Cascade Mountains.

      They discover that most of the wolf pack had been killed by locals who live by the motto ” shoot, shovel and shut – up”.

      The team hope that at least some of the pack has escaped.

      As they chase exciting new leads there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon.

      (Documentary Series) (From the UK, in English) (Class TBC) CC

      One really does get the sense that “protections” of animals can be very loose, if not haphazard, inconsistent or unsystematic. Often they are poorly enforced because of budgets and the complicity of some of the “protectors” with the poachers. The problems are not only serious but also hard to police. Some of the trophy hunters would shoot and behead the animals on the spot and leave the carcases to rot, taking the heads or whatever parts that they want in order to make those severed parts into specimens.

      This is getting all too depressing if not macabre! Let us conclude here with something far more uplifting, inspiring and even transcendental as follows. Quoted below is the fifth stanza of an illustrated and animated twelve-stanza poem from my post entitled “🎴 If My Name Were Moon Tonight… 🌛🌝🎑🈷 with Clair de Lune 🌕“:

      If my name were Moon tonight…
      Would you propose to me with wolf symphonies
      And hear my soul croon forthright
      Across old memories and new destinies…?

      As you probably already know, we are already in the midst of the Sixth Great Extinction. Until we critically deal with our wayward ways and wasteful, destructive nature, even environmentalism in all its diversity may not suffice to turn things around. We really need to pay much greater attention to environmental issues, ecological health and interspecies communication in conjunction with our (mis)understanding of animal artistry and musicality, as discussed in great detail in one of my latest posts entitled “Do Animals Create Art and Music? 🎵🐕🎶🐒🎹🐘🖼🐬🎨“, available at

      Do Animals Create Art and Music? 🎵🐕🎶🐒🎹🐘🖼🐬🎨

      In this special post, and given that you like animals in general and elephants in particular, you can experience how certain animals (including elephants) enjoy and respond to musical performances, as well as how they create art and music.

      You are very welcome to join the discussion at my said post and offer your feedback, insight, doubt, opinion or the like. The post also discusses in detail many outstanding issues that have been preventing humans from relating well to nonhumans and Nature holistically. On the whole, we humans are often too absorbed in our own affairs to notice two big elephants in the room: speciesism and anthropocentricism. Both are highly entrenched, and both are very widespread and often unacknowledged forms of prejudice, discrimination and bigotry. Despite years of fleshing out the (conceptual, philosophical, ethical, practical and/or social) framework in examining the possibility or plausibility of environmentalism meeting the needs and expectations of all humanity to help us to survive as a species, fundamental progress is still far too slow.

      Being simultaneously witty and serious about a number of outstanding issues, the said post actually ventures far beyond whatever its title may suggest or mean to any reader, especially in the very long “Conclusions” section. Please note the ISEA Model that I have devised to analyse and describe the Instrumental, Spiritual, Pro-Environment and Pro-Animal/Plant perspectives.

      I welcome your input since I am curious to know what you make of my said post as well as your perspectives on those matters discussed in my post. I look forward to savouring your feedback there!

      Like you, I have also done my part in defending animals not just in their right for freedom and survival but also their still underrated and often misunderstood artistry and musicality.

      May both of you enjoy a lovely October! Wishing you a productive month doing or enjoying whatever that satisfies you the most, whether aesthetically, physically, intellectually or spiritually!

      Yours sincerely,
      SoundEagle🦅

      1. Hi SoundEagle, thank you so much for visiting my blog and for adding to the conversation about these amazing mammals and the plight of some. I appreciate you giving me the links to your posts, so I will visit over the weekend. Thanks again for sharing your input and thoughts. Have a lovely weekend!

      2. Dear Lauren,

        Thank you for your reply. You are very welcome, not to mention that I enjoyed reading your post and conversation here, as well as your other poetic and profound post entitled “Silent Cell Phone“!

        I would like to inform you that when you visit my said post, it is preferrable to use a desktop or laptop computer with a large screen to view the rich multimedia contents available for heightening your multisensory enjoyment at my blog, as the limitations of iPad, iPhone, tablet or other portable devices frequently result in very dissatisfactory and highly problematic handling of the complexities of my blog contents, severely curtailing their readability and distorting their formats.

        Hopefully, this particular post can be of considerable interest to you, insofar as I have distilled a great deal of observations and conclusions along similar themes to investigate and analyze the complex issues about not only animal intelligence but also what can really constitute artistry and musicality, and the nature of art and music. I look forward to your submitting comment(s) there, perhaps even something stunningly or astonishingly new, witty, personal or edifying to the point of ruffling SoundEagle’s feathers (in a good way). 😉

        Yours sincerely,
        SoundEagle🦅

  7. I’m with you on this, Lauren. The evil the human heart is capable of visiting upon our fellow travelers on this planet is unconscionable. And, kudos on the sonnet. Wonderful sentiments, indeed. 😊🐘

  8. If only Lauren; Beautiful insights shared and beautiful mural of our big loving elephants.. Breaks my heart!!! I love your poem and your calling we will continue the fight💕

  10. I love the elephant murals! I remember a tear jerker of a video of a man who worked with an elephant, who came back decades later to visit her. She remembered him! It was so heart warming.

  12. Beautifully orchestrated Lauren. I adore those elephant murals. 🐘🐘🐘 What a celebration you paid to these beloved mammals that do not deserve those greedy and insensitive poachers preying on them for their tusks. Thanks so much for your lovely share my dear. Hugs and smooches! 🥰💖😍

    1. Aww, thanks for your wonderful chiming in for the cause, Kym! I’m glad I finally was able to take some pics. I appreciate your kind words about my sonnet, too. I have wishes about those poachers, but I’ll keep those to myself. Hugs and smooches to you, dear friend! 🤗🐘🩷🐘❤️

      1. Honey Lauren, I think we have the same wishes about those poachers, and it ain’t pretty either! 😲 I imagine doing to them what they do to innocent creatures, humans and animals alike. If the shoe was on the other foot, what then? Hmmmm…. I appreciate your advocacy with this topic of discussion my friend. 🙏🏼 Thanks for sharing your snapshots! 🐘📸🐘

  14. Selfishness and greed are killing off many of our treasured friends from the animal kingdom and it is manifested not only in the slaughter by knives and guns but in our handling of the environment they rely on to survive. We still have an opportunity to change our ways and protect what remains of the animal kingdom.

    1. Thanks for adding to the conversation, Ian. I feel for any animals that are abused and killed for any reason, but poaching is beyond heartbreaking. I commend everyone who is doing their best to protect these innocent animals.

  17. I think a world that cares nothing for the thousands of innocent children killed in Gaza in the last year, they would have no concern for the lives of elephants 🐘 either.

  20. Public art, in all its forms, adds creativity and beauty. 👏🏻 These paintings are lovely, and your poem sensitively addresses a heartbreaking issue. 😢🐘💝

    1. I agree, Michele, and thanks for your lovely words. It is so heartbreaking. 💔 But I’m glad you liked the mural and poem, and hope the good hearted people win over the heartless for the sake of all animals. Have a good weekend. ❤️🐘🐘🌷

  21. Perfectly said in poetry, Lauren!

    Yes…greed and power are to blame.

    I think the truly rich, the 1 %, are mostly to blame, in this case.

    They go on the big game hunt safaris. They create markets that buy ivory and gonads and horns and things that regular people can’t afford.

    The wealthy, and governments (especially in developing countries) that support them, keep the poor, poor.

    They don’t incentivize by creating jobs and opportunities. Many men that hunt these illegal sinful trophies for the rich, are feeding families perhaps. They need the income. If the rich who can afford to go on big game safaris, and pay for ill gotten gains did not do that or buy those things, there would be no incentive.

    Of course there is a cascading list of ill gottens at this point.

    I have signed countless petitions for Canada to stop treating horses inhumanely, as they ship them, in horrid conditions and terror, to Japan to be slaughtered for gourmet food. It doesn’t stop because it’s big business. Someone makes a lot of money, and the government shares through taxation.

    I’m not against the wealthy, but I question the intents and callousnesses that it can foster.

    Anyway, in this instance, bullets don’t just come from guns. They come from the hearts and minds of those that want what loaded guns can achieve… for their greed.

    I’ve blathered on. Pardon! How humans treat animals drives me crazy.

    Thank you for this poem! I love that your heart & mind are in a good place.

    Your pal and vegetarian since teenagehood, Resa.

    xoxoxo🐘xoxoxo

    1. Thanks, Resa, and I understand the point you’re conveying, and agree. What you wrote about horses makes me cry! Any animals that are tortured for any reason is beyond heartbreaking! There really are no words, but I almost feel physically ill imagining the horror. You can blather and rant all you want. And you’re right, guns don’t kill. The heartless are in control of doing the harm for greed.

      Thanks for chiming into the cause and conversation. I love this mural, and my poem at first was going to be joyful about these amazing creatures. But then it took a turn…anyway…xoxoxo

      1. I love the mural too, and understand your joy.
        I also understand the turn it took.

        That was not to be helped, considering elephants’ plight in our world.

        You did good!
        I know you are drawn to the brighter side, which is one of the aspects of you I adore.
        I also know you can look at all sides, and that you have a lot of empathy. Yet another wonderful quality.
        It all adds up to make the great writer you are.

        Hugs!! xxoxo

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