Sangduen lek Chailert and her Elephants

Living in Northern Thailand
And being a sensitive soul
A women whose nurturing qualities
Were always in control
She had elders to advise her
She realized the earth
And capitalised on her true belief
She understood its worth

It was fundamental to her
Her philosophy to respect
And be kind to elephants
Those fine souls she could see
Who were anything but respected
By the great majority

They weee slaves out in the forest
Chained and made to strive
Or begging on the concrete roads
Unhappy to be alive
Or tormented in the zoos and temples
Given a terrible time
How soon they became disabled
Being made to climb

On hills out in the jungle
And the babies with phajan
How some mahouts would beat them
Beat them As a plan
With bull hooks and with whips
These majestic beasts how they
Suffered really suffered
At the hands of man each day

This feeling was in ber marrow
In her heart and in her soul
She hated what she saw men do
How they tried to control
A soul who could just crush them
Could squeeze their heads to dust
But allowed men still to beat them
Knowing how unjust

Born in BAAN KAO she had the chance
To realize and feel
All the pain the elephants felt
Which For her was very real
She realized how grounded they were
And decided what she would do
Was give her love and caring spirit
And maintain that all through

And despite their size and tortured life
Of course they would respond
They had substance and solidity
An ethic so to bond
With any human spirit
That showed them some acclaim
And loved them and respected them
And let them be the same

Deep down ingrained in all their hearts
Is love and care and they
Appreciate the love received
And loved her back each day
She is a beautiful lady
Inside and outside too
And elephants of course
have huge hearts
And it has been their view

Since time began to give their love
But its thrown back in their face
Their love is being stalwart to the cruelty
They face
Some go haywire eventually
And kill mahouts and those
Who have been so vile and unkind to them
And tragically did pose

A threat to their existence
But in the main we see
Elephants being good natured
And hopeful actually
And LEK has proved their saviour
And they have granted their
Love and understanding
And of course are bound to care

THe ELephant Nature Park she runs
Is a park full up with friends
She has a kinship with them
A family and that sends
Many messages skywards
To the cruelty we see
In Thailand to this very day
A kind of eternal plea

For love and just for caring
For just rewards return
Elephants are wonderful
They have so much concern
For the environment around them
And the people in their life
They are honest and abiding
And want nothing to do with strife

P