In university I read a poem by Paula Underwood which has always stuck in my mind as I search for ways to make the lives of animals important to other humans, as I struggle with how to encourage humans to step outside their own heads and look at things from another perspective. Whenever I read about cruelty to animals and think of how their suffering is constantly ignored, I think of the last lines of Underwood's poem:
And so it was
That the People devised among themselves
a way of asking each other questions
whenever a decision was to be made
on a New Place or a New Way
We sought to perceive the flow of energy
through each new possibility
and how much was enough
and how much was too much
Until at last
Someone would rise
and ask the old, old question
to remind us of things
we do not yet see clearly enough to remember
"TELL ME NOW MY BROTHERS
TELL ME NOW MY SISTERS
WHO SPEAKS FOR WOLF?"
Image Credit: Alive in Calgary
