Ebony king of the woods.
Musky body, amber eyes
Smokey breath
in the morning air,  
Full spread of antlers.
This son of Pan
Owning his space, as time stands still.

I searched the verses
fine lines did see
eloquent couplets
and allegory

Falling meter
Lament and line
(even a poem that was worse than mine!)

Well versed love poems
Lampoon and wit
Some that go on... and on... for a bit

Dolphins once free in a vast ocean
wild intelligence captured in Taiji Cove
after hours of exhuastive persuit by men in boats
Desperate families try to shield their calves
witness to blood bath slaughter
for the meat trade
Others to be penned and starved
when broken and hungry they learn to eat dead fish
are then sold around the world
to travel in tanks by road
to fly hundreds of miles
to be condemmed to a life captive
doing tricks for less intelligent humans.
                 ??
Dogs made bad by dangerous owners
condemned to death
under the
Dangerous Dogs (Amendment) Act 1997
passed by dangerous men.

Speckled breast,
Red berry clutched in your beak.
Mistle thrush on winter's frosty lawn.
I heard you sing two moons ago-
Storm thrush in a wind bowed tree top

In spring you came to the garden,
Fat, fluffed, child with your mother
Feasting then on hoards of leaf gorged caterpillars
Who'd rendered felty mullien leaves to shreds.

Doe eyed, staring, steaming.
Chocolate, toffee and coffee,
Cream and buttermilk
Or black and white.
Roused at dawn
To yield the warm succour
meant for their long dead offspring
Morning, mourning for natures call of motherhood.