The animals who before for me did dance
Brought to the page tales of romance
Through the dances, those who gaited
So elegantly have been liberated!
You want to play? Take the ball off me!The cat shall no more walk the rope
How shall I, the writer cope?
The horses no more gallop around the ring:
Girls dancing on their back – the joys they bring!
The elephant rearing on its legs on the stool:
Inspired verses of the jester fool
The lion to whipcrack on the chair
Brought he tales of bravery there!
The lurching walk of the giraffe:
Was the wry rhyme that made the readers laugh –
The camel with its look so smug:
Was the witticism found at the bottom of the mug –
The monkey with its crazy play:
Was the epic verse of a successful day:
The tiger with its gaze intense:
The poem edited that now makes sense –
Alas, no more the circus shall be
The activists liberated them from me
So we will take down the tents, and then
The writer shall throw away his pen!
The poem draws parallell with Yeats saying inspiration was Circus Animals dancing for him, turning that on its head we say if that is what inspiration is, if these folk get there way there will be no circus animals and so no inspiration!
The ARAN network want to stop animal circus altogether. Their intimidatory tactics – animal activists in general, not ARAN in particular – caused the reaction in Tallaght which was ably dealt with by the guards.
Six or seven circus activists were arrested as to defend their business they overreacted to the provocation of the protesters. Basically the protesters treated honest working people the way they treated the water meter installers (from whom I have NO sympathy) which is a wrong thing to do, and no business is going to allow that to happen to their premises of place of work. The Nally Principle of defense of your property and livihood comes into play – even trade unionists cannot picket the workplace of dispute like that.
Animal rights activist claim the crack of the whip is cruel to the horse. If the horse is scared it will NOT do tricks, it must be confident, have a good communication with its handler who MUST look in control for the horse to have confidence in them, and the horse knows the trick needed from the sound the whip makes, trained this way akin to the way the cowboys used to train horses with a clicking noise from the mouth when riding at speed.
