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
