Poles Apart
Poetry by Lance Landall
A Spiritual And Inspirational Poem from All-Creatures.org

To take the life of something that has feelings, seems so wrong to me, And creatures do have feelings, often acting affectionately. They interact with each other, and with us, intelligently, And clearly display an array of emotions, spontaneity.

To take a creature’s life, just for the sake of appetite, pleasure, Must surely, in some way, the content of one’s heart and mind measure. After all, humans have the ability to reason, think things through, And therefore, one would assume, the more humane thing would chose to do.

It seems rather bizarre to me, how humans dote over their pets, Then shoot, skin, and gut other creatures; hook, spear, and catch fish in nets. Surely in the minds of the young especially, such doesn’t gel, And more so, when we’re saying to them, “Don’t act violently, don’t kill.”

Given that other food sources are available; adequate too, Why would anyone such a cruel and retrograde thing think to do? It’s hardly enlightened behaviour — rather, such hardens the heart, And as far as love, kindness, and compassion go, it’s poles apart.

Yes, better the home where no flesh is eaten.