The Project

Creation of a triptych piece of art “The Greatest Show on Earth” to support a virtual exhibition and competition displaying creative and innovative works completed by the 1MYAC community around the theme “How can we act for the environment?”  (August/September 2022).

“The Greatest Show on Earth” brings together two "Wildly Creative" artists from The One Million Poetry project, Anthony Lovell and Ingrid Lung, working in different mediums – endangered-wildlife poetry and pencil illustration – to creatively express the UN Sustainable Development Goal SDG 15, Life on Land.

Together, they have co-created a triptych piece of art to support the ART-ivism campaign in partnership with the One Million Youth Actions Challenge (1MYAC) as Headlines Artists, Speakers and Judges.

Comprising three poems and accompanying illustrations, the triptych depicts three of “The Greatest” wild animals on land including the Elephant “The Biggest”, the Giraffe “The Tallest” and the Cheetah “The Fastest”.

The Greatest Show on Earth magnifies the greatness of these iconic land animals in graphite and shines a light on the dangers they face in verse. Through the emotional art of poetry and illustration, echoing each other, we are invited to reflect on the future of these animals as representatives of the threatened biodiversity on land.

 
 
 

‘Eye on the Prize’

I am the biggest

Heavyweight champion of the world

I’ve got a thick skin, I can take it

How long will my title last?

What’s your call?

I need Life: Life needs me

I need the Land: The Land needs me

 

The Loxodontas have lost the plot

Might lose the lot, fall by the wayside

One by one, big shame

Biggest land animal

Needs the land like a SDG

Live a big life on African land and forest

And Asian, Elephas maximus used to roam wider

No other animal can stand in their way

Correction: humans are an animal

But don’t any more act that way

Now block the way, ancient migration routes

Bring them into a conflict zone

Correction: we bring the conflict zone to them

So as not to lose them - learn from them

Three super senses make sense of the world

Trunk, unique identifier - serpentine

40,000 muscles, strength and fine motor

Delicate and precise proboscis skills

Worlds biggest and most animate nose

Trunks up, can smell from a distance

Can trumpet callings and warnings

Ears just as identifying, flapping around

Acute hearing, heat regulating - signaling

Doesn’t have good eyesight, but has flash lashes

Super connected to earth through it soles

At the end of tree-like legs, plants its feet

Sends and receives seismic signals

Keeps in touch long distance, stomping

Though sociably keeps in touch at trunks length

Grunts, growls, roars and - chirping!

Ultra-low frequency travels far in the air too

Matriarchal societies, mothers and aunties

Watching over the herd, calf nursery

Bulls in Musth must come around periodically

Don’t get caught in between them and their intent

Two years later, world’s longest gestation

The herd welcomes another new family member

Living among the tree-legs, caressed by vine trunks

Guided and sometimes fished out of tight spots

Herded to safety in swift-flowing rivers, hefty rescues

The herds must roam, eating prodigious amounts

Vegetation management, carbon cycling

How much more they are worth alive than dead

The land must have Elephants

Like the sea must have Whales

And the Elephants must have

Eyes on the prize

Staying alive

By Anthony E. Lovell

‘Eye in the Sky’

I am the tallest

Eyes in the sky I see all

But tell me about my future

Things I don’t want to see?

What will it be?

I need Life: Life needs me

I need the Land: The Land needs me

 

Giraffe

Zarraffas, from Arabic - ‘fast walker’

(Why am I thinking Kenton coffee?)

Original High Tower, watchtower even

Top of the tree

When it comes to sticking their neck out

Nature’s greatest rubber-neckers

Pain in each other’s necks when fighting

Come out swinging, wildly clubbing

(Half-baked horns) Ossicones aim for the underbelly

Giraffe necking can be a dangerous thing

When competing for the dominance of genes

Leaves its marks, makes skulls thicker

Or it can stand, head in the trees, prickly eater

With only high-flying birds for company

Lip service and prehensile tongue, delicately

Tasty new Acacia leaves to eat, no competition

Long legs to balance the periscope neck

Covers a lot of ground with just a few steps

High level line of sight advantage, eye-spying

Something beginning with L - up to a kilometre away

Four patterns of species camouflaging

Surprising to find such variations on a theme

Animal pattern art in Plains sight

All very useful for African survival

Until it comes to drinking flat-out

Adaptation to stop blood gushing to its head

Spreadeagled, forward limbo - try not to laugh

Sense of humour from evolution

Awkward for the Giraffe – unseemly, ungainly

Knobby knees don’t really help

Then one other lofty biodesign flaw

A newborn calf’s entrance to the world

Its right of passage welcome to the world freefall

Crashing down to earth, seconds after birth

Grounded early, hard first life lesson

Born with all your senses, such a rude awakening

Survive all that and put it all together

Things start rather jelly-legs wobbly

But baby, you were born to…

Walk or gallop, set a cracking pace

Avoiding predators you’ll grow in stature

Have a long neck up to 2.4 metres

Same number of neck bones as humans though

That’s quite a stretch, elongation story

But here the tone must change for unnatural danger

You still must face, standing head and shoulders above

Height no advantage against existential threats

That took you from Least Concern to Vulnerable

In your birth place, as humans increase

Agriculture encroaches, climate changes

Traditional hunters still pursue for cultural reasons

But worse, the Trophy Hunters are coming

Telescopic Sights no respecter of your long vision

Your high life and your numbers tumbling down

To join the endangered, the club of the falling

But still we’d rather return to the warm-hearted

Light-hearted - a musing on your nature

Your iconic stature in Africa, scraping the sky

Survival of your species guaranteed

That’s a big ask, a tall task

So you’ll always be here

Tall tales to tell

Stand your ground

Life on Land

Stand tall

By Anthony E. Lovell

‘Eye of the Cheetah’

I am the fastest

Catch me you can’t, not even if you’re a sprinter

My spots turn to streaks as I low-fly past

Will I lose my birthright race, finally be outrun?

Is that a starting gun?

I need Life: Life needs me

I need the Land: The Land needs me

 

If ever one was born to run

To outrun from the starting gun

See the Flash of animals: the Cheetah

No prey is safe, unless it’s not hungry

If the meal miscalculates, comes in sprint range

Doesn’t soon enough engage flight or fight

Flight is not an option against this cat in flight

It will close the gap with evolutionary acceleration

Only sidestepping agility might save the prey

Momentum gives the Cheetah its wins, and losses

Can’t change course too easily at speed - don’t bet your life on it!

Evolution has the Cheetah’s back there too

High-speed manoeuvring, fast-tracking

Flying like a heat seeking arrow, locked on the target

Can’t afford to look back, or this is what you’ll see

The Eye of the Cheetah coming in hot!

Cats are hunters, that’s Felidae - but only one can fly

Is that all I’m really known for says the Cheetah

One of Africa’s iconic 3 Big Cats, how is that working out

It’s not the land of the free anymore

Humans are encroaching, conflicting, poaching

Humans are gunning, trophy hunting(sic)

Humans are landscape changing, biodiversity erasing

Now we’re running, not chasing - but where to run?

Tell me, what is to be done to keep me iconic

Not ironic: Africa without its Fastest Land Animal

(At least I’d have one less agent of mortality

As the Lions too fade away…

And Leopards are downed from the trees)

Your Goal should be to keep us here, continuity

Solitary mothers with punk kitten litters

Proof that the coalitions of males are around

Ranging over vast territories, eking out a living

Doing our daily work for biodiversity

That’s what we were all born for

Playing our natural part, Life on Land

I just happen to be the fastest one

I can accelerate from 0 - 100 km per hour

In just three seconds, keep pace with a sports car

The only way you’ll keep pace with me

I am Cheetah: see me run

For my life

By Anthony E. Lovell

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