The Project
Creation of three poems in support of Youth for Animals (YFA), an awareness platform for youth interested in animal welfare, working against animal cruelty and for animal protection. YFA especially focuses on animal captivity, particularly elephants. They focus their activism on freeing two elephants in particular from captivity, Shankar and Rambo, through art campaigns.
The poems were especially written by Anthony for the “Art for Shankar” campaign.
‘An Elephant at Heart’
There’s an elephant in the room
Where the room is a heart
The heart that takes to art
To express what’s locked inside
There’s an elephant in this room
Young eyes can see it obviously
The one thing that needs to be talked about
To be let out, too big to be ignored
Love for this elephant
In this room he is safe, respected
In this room he must be happy
He’ll never get out of this room
Which must see him released
This room will just get bigger
So big, fit to burst
It will reach out and find sanctuary
And see the elephant out
It’s not enough to hope and wait
The young want it all, here and now
They pick up a pen, a device
And write heartfelt lines
They pick up a pencil or a brush
And draw and paint loving pictures
That speak volumes of this elephant’s plight
Shankar, elephant in the waiting room
The art will tell his tale
Recruiting other hearts, other rooms
To see and feel the elephant too
And create a moving work of art
A movement straight from the heart
Because Shankar lives in another room
With concrete floors, leg chained
A chain that has taken a toll
Taken his mind and soul
He looks like an elephant, rocking
But he is just a thick-skinned shell
His cell is far from home
His true home is two actually
The room that is the heart
And a place with room to roam
A sanctuary that will rehabilitate
Maybe find other pachyderms
With whom he can relate
And learn to be once again
The elephant in the room
An elephant at heart
Shankar will never know
How he fills your heart
But the world will
#artforshankar
There’s something else in the room
That dwarfs an elephant
And pushes the walls out
It’s hope for the future
And you’re looking at it
By Anthony E. Lovell
‘Diplomatic Impunity’
Here stands an elephant
In India, far out of Africa
Rocking stereotypically, not still
Can’t approach the mad pachyderm
Where mad doesn’t mean angry
Though that is what he displays
Not safe to go within range
Of an enraged trunk, he’ll come out swinging
Chronically in existential crisis
Chained for 17 hours a day
What sentient creature’s psychology
Could withstand his lot, not even a Lot
Insanity is the cause of his lashing out
His brain needs the ordeal to stop
To heal
He is an elephant
India has elephants
But he’s an African cousin
No others of his kind
In Delhi Zoo, time in solitary
24 years he’s been there, alone for 15
That’s some kind of sentence
For one who did nothing wrong
Still Shankar has no impunity
No immunity to his solitary cruelty
What diplomacy placed him here?
Here’s an idea, a diplomatic coup
For India and Zimbabwe to realise
Strengthen the ties by Indian giving
Not giving back, paying forward
Give the gift away, to a healing sanctuary
For a higher good and principled purpose
Swap advanced understanding, resolve
It shows the value in which the ‘gift’ is held
To improve his quality of life
And extend his longevity, long live the ties
Between the two elephant countries
His way out is their saving grace
(Though to understand animals are not gifts
Is a better step into the enlightenment)
He can’t really go home, so far out of reach
To the African forest and savannah
But he could be given a home range
And maybe some day other Loxodontas
Caught far from home, no way back
Might share this twist of fate
He may just find a companion again
Maybe even a mate
Shankar has a name to be a Lord
But he has no dominion, no subjects
A name to be beneficent
But none is shown to him, none to give
A name to be blissful
But he isn’t
And can’t be
Yet he could be set ‘free’
To live into his name, and station
Through the reverse diplomacy
Be granted diplomatic immunity
To wander in an open-space embassy
Recipient at last, gift of ‘freedom’
Diplomatic Impunity
In perpetuity
By Anthony E. Lovell
‘What’s in a Name’
What’s in a name?
Shankar
A name for a god
A name for a national treasure, prodigy
And his daughters, musical progeny
A name for a president
A singer, a composer, a painter, a poet
An actor, a director, a singer-songwriter
A name for the times
A good name for an elephant
That’s how it well fits
But an Indian Elephant bears it best
Not Shankar, out of Africa!
Can never go back
Gods are different over there
India’s Shankar is a sorry god
His godhead has lost the plot
It happens when a social creature
Lives a solitary life, no interactions
None of his kind, loses his mind
In essence he’s a prisoner
His name no longer fits
Fame has faded, his trumpet silenced
Nothing to do but rock all day, self-soothing
To get through another mindless, meaningless day
What’s in a name?
Music and culture
Talent, art, creativity
Can that get him out?
Ravi Shankar famously played the sitar
Spotlighted the musical heritage
An Ambassador of India’s sound
Shankar could trumpet, if happy
Play a duet, a pachyderm Dizzy
Two giants, one of art and culture
One far away from home
Thick-skinned, but that doesn’t help
Bearer of tusks, bearer of a burden
Solitary confinement not for a crime
Doing time abandoned undiplomatically
Should seek Diplomatic Impunity
Sanctuary inside a wide open-space embassy
Free reign in his own free range
What’s in a name?
Religion and State
National pride, world stage
Can that get him out?
A gift to India, side-shelved - locked away
Outliving the kudos and the purpose
A thing forgotten, no small thing
No thing, a being - housed in deprivation
On show, but for those in the know
Clearly he isn’t living, not redounding
To this nations glory, not a good sign
Not good optics on political will
But giving Shankar a life in sanctuary
Definitely would be, kindness and honour
Good faith restored
Musical children of India
What can you sing?
What can you play?
To make them hear and see
To save Shankar’s day
Guide him into his Sanctuary
Where he can live out his name
Overlord of a peaceful domain
Sharing with namesakes his fame
Politicians of India, people of fame
Anyone who would honour this name
Bearers of it, reverers of it
What can you do?
What can you say?
To clear the way to save the day
Send a pachyderm packing
To where he should be
Sanctified in sanctuary
Namesakes - speak out, speak up
Sing, play, film - ply your trade
Kindly Mahout your giant talents, create
Paint a picture, make a film
Put on a show, and tell
Shankar’s story - with a happy ending
Sing his praises, make him free
Restore his station
Honour your name
Do a great thing for this creature
By Anthony E. Lovell
