Leopards’ Last Stand

Living Artfully requires that we live consciously and aware of our actions. This includes not only our personal choices and actions, but those of humanity, of which we are a part. As long as there is even one person who denies reality in the cause of greed, the response to fear, or a callous disregard of anyone other than themselves, we, humanity, planet Earth and everything that lives upon it will be at risk. Should we perish sooner than our allotted time and through our own actions, what will be lost will have far less meaning to the cosmos than what might be gained through our growth into harmony. As humanity and Earth have a tipping point so too, I believe, does the universe. For those who may read this and say that God works in mysterious ways, start preparing for the end days. This is not what I think has to happen, but their God has shown little regard for the trials, tribulations and tragedies which we have and continue to inflict upon this ball of mud we call home.

I recently watched the movie Don Juan DeMarco, which I hadn’t seen for many years. Don Juan DeMarco tells his therapist, “There are only four questions of value in life. What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for, and what is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same: only love.” These questions strike me as the questions and the only true answer we should use to guide our lives. So I will continue to create art and write to present the world  the way I see it in hope that someone, anyone will step back from the willful brutality that we inflict daily upon ourselves and upon our house, the planet where we live.

One such endeavor, previously posted on The Pen’s Might, involved an adaptaion of William Blake’s poem The Tyger, which begins Tyger, Tyger burning bright…. When this poem was written I do not believe Blake could have conceived of a time when the tiger or other animal so fierce could be at risk of extinction. We’re not there yet, but we grow ever closer. So I give you…

THE LEOPARD

Leopard! Leopard! spurning flight
Will you vanish in the night?
What mortal weapon hand or spree
Would end thy fearful symmetry?

Not so distant wait the flies
To watch the fire leave your eyes.
On what fell wings do they descend
Your flesh and sinew then to rend?

And you molder and depart
As humanity lays waste your heart.
And when thy heart shall cease to beat
What tear shed mourns thee complete?

What the hammer? What the chain?
Felled trees so cover’s sought in vain?
What the building, what the rasp
Dare spell your glory’s end at last?

When the stars fall from their spheres
They’ll fill the darkness with their tears.
Who will frown your plight to see?
No lamb e’er existed to remake thee.

Leopard! Leopard! Spurning flight
Will you vanish in the night?
What mortal weapon hand or spree
Would end thy fearful symmetry?