Tiger, Tiger You Thrill Me – a poem about the wonder of living creatures.

Tiger, Tiger you thrill me.

 

Tiger, tiger, slithering by

With scaly skin and glittering eye

What strange thoughts do you employ

To gauge the depths of all your joy?

 

Lying coiled beneath the sun

Until the warmth within is done.

On what dreams do you journey?

To places strange to the likes of me?

 

And what would move you to tread

To another life to the one you’re wed?

For when you’re roused enough to bite

Do you experience alien delight?

 

Could you leave that ecstasy

To taste another, and be free?

To choose a gentler road to roam

And find pleasant refuge to call home?

 

Could you trust one such as me

To gently rest in complete safety?

Or must it always be this way

That you’d attack or slink away?

 

For tiger, tiger, I wish it were

Different for this scale and fur.

That we might sit beneath this tree

And share this moment of beauty.

 

Opher 10.2.2018

 

 

When I was staying with our friends Dylan and Julia in Tasmania I had the good fortune of coming across a Tiger Snake. I believe they are the world’s sixth most dangerous snake and are renowned for attacking on sight.

At first I thought it was a coiled up hosepipe. It was quite large. As I approached it suddenly uncoiled and slithered off into a hole under the cabin. It gave me quite a shock.

A little later I crept back and found him out and sunning himself. He let me get quite close to take a couple of photos. He was beautiful.

Anthropocene Apocalypse – The Tiger – Chinese quackery.

Tiger-Wallpapers-Wallpapers-fever Tiger-roar Tiger_in_training___O

The tiger is a magnificent beast. It is a formidable killer, a beautifully stream-lined killing machine. Evolution has honed it into a cold, calculated hunter, a biological specimen of speed and strength that is irresistible. It comes like a ton of muscle, sinew, tooth and claw with jaws that can crush your skull and claws that can rip out your entrails with one slash.

That is its problem. People do not like being eaten.

In the natural world the balance of nature is maintained by the delicate interactions of carnivores, herbivores and plants. If there are too many herbivores the vegetation is eaten down and the land becomes arid desert (such as overgrazing in the Sahara). The carnivores keep the numbers down. It is in equilibrium.

Mankind has systematically targeted any animal that threatens him. It is natural instinct. Unfortunately our numbers are now so out of control that we are encroaching into every corner of the world, chopping down the tress, destroying the habitat and butchering the animals.

We are not leaving any room for the rest of the animals. In the last thirty years the mammals population of the world has been reduced by 56%. That is staggering. If that is allowed to continue we will destroy every last wild animal.

The few tigers left are being conserved. Unfortunately they are being poached. They are used in quack Chinese medicine. This is in the mistaken belief that a bit of powdered tiger bone will increase a man’s virility and libido. Tiger penises are also in big demand for the same reason. This is utter bollocks.

This is ironic as the last thing we need is more human virility. There’s too many of us by far.

I suggest that the only demand for tiger penises should come from female tigers.

I suggest we put aside 50% of the planet for the wild-life and protect their habitat. 50% of the world should be plenty for us!

I do not want to see pictures like this:

tiger-carcasses