Name: My Sentiments on Sentient
Duration: P00H01M41S
Description: A poem about animal intelligence and human arrogance.

My Sentiments on Sentient

from A Kootenay Flower in Foreign Soil by Erin J. Bauman the Panoptical Poet

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A poem about animal intelligence and human arrogance.

lyrics

So they’ve decided elephants
are sentient
now;
just elephants…
and dolphins.
Maybe the other animals
are not as silent as they seem.
Maybe only we
are denied the privilege
of hearing the sentiment of their sentient voices
because we cannot seem to clearly understand
the meaning of symbiosis.
We have apparently bridged the gap
between ourselves
and an elephant,
but we cannot close the communication cavern
between ourselves
and the universe as a whole.
We cannot seem to grasp
the simplicity
of interconnectedness;
of how nature and the cosmos use etheric energy
to make an arch between the apertures
in the species and their elements.
We audaciously split atoms
and send satellites soaring into space
without remembering what we should truly explore
before we meddle with the master plan
of a power we do not completely comprehend.
Perhaps the animals do not speak to us,
because they are too busy
honing their hereditary instincts;
internalizing the motion of the sun and the stars;
receiving the messages of their own planet
through its smallest vibrations,
without needing to use a satellite.

22

While we humans can hold our gadgets high,
and cite civilization
as proof of the endlessness of our learnedness,
we have foolishly forgotten
the wisdom of ancient words
adorning one of our oldest oracles:
(‘GNOTHI SEAUTON’)
‘know thyself’.
That is something
an elephant
would never do,
but humans still decide
who is or isn’t sentient.

credits

from A Kootenay Flower in Foreign Soil, released November 27, 2021
Written and Read by: Erin J. Bauman, the Panoptical Poet

Recorded and Mastered by: Steve Marc/SMG Endeavors

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about

Erin J. Bauman the Panoptical Poet image

Erin J. Bauman the Panoptical Poet Castlegar, British Columbia

The Panoptical Poet is an environmental and social justice word warrior who ex-amines the many varying viewpoints of our current global reality.

Each poem Erin writes is an attempt at bringing to light the undervalued voices that are being silenced in the landscape of our collective conversations.

Find more Panoptical Poetry/Merchandise on the linktr.ee in bio. ... more