sailing in the ocean
the mighty ocean vast
can be a very lonely place
not a single mast
can be seen
for ever in all directions
then you see
the dolphin tribes
they gather
and say Hello collectively
flashing through water
like wondrous shafts of light
playing with the bubbles
they create
their spirits bright
to every lonely sailor
who ever saw them they
make you feel the joyfulness
in their free display
the total exaltation
the abandonment they cause
wallowing in the wonder
unable just to pause
a moment enraptured
by their light
their merriment is out there
with gusto they invite
you feel you want to join them
in their ecstasy of play
leaping through the sunlit waves
creating rainbow spray
it is a blissful feeling
a magical picture and
that'[s what Dolphins do for us
its as if its planned
everybody loves them
everybody cares
except it seems
the Japanese
who slaughter them in pairs
who violate their joyfulness
who prostrate them with woe
who torture them with rigour
which tragically does grow
these are magical beings
one Louis P{sihoyos
made the film the Cove
in that film he discovered
how the men had drove
these wonderful magical mammals
into a killing frame
to murder them in agony
in some kind of cultural game
the air of disagreeableness
the anguish that they feel
the shock that man is this unkind
their martyrdom is real
the hopelessness
the desolation
the uneasiness
they feel
being butchered
so obviously
startlingly so real
all feeling downtrodden
laden with the woe
almost accursed by it all
when most now seem to know
the magic that is the
dolphins
the courage they do show
the care and unflinching valour
that truly seems to grow
l
But Taiji pipes an anthem
hammers it home and we
see the slaughter in the water
and the cove red terribly
Rex Tyler is a Poet, Campaigner, former owner of an organic shop of 30 years, and Public Speaker living in Berkhamsted, UK.