Sea Shanty
Greetings!
According to our Scottish CEO, Lorraine, this past month the somewhat stir-crazy people of the United Kingdom have been grasping for relief from Covid lockdown stress by composing and posting online ditties in the style of sea shanties. Lorraine jumped on board (as it were) and composed the world’s first sea shanty devoted to Saola! Check it out! She did it just for her own fun – and perhaps inspired by the birthday last Monday, January 25 of Scotland’s literary hero, Robert Burns. I persuaded her to let us share it with you. It’s wonderful. Have a watch and a listen – and pick up on the utter commitment of her and the Saola Foundation team to getting the job done of Saola conservation:
Also this week, a poet friend, Tony Hendricks, penned and posted on his blog this heartfelt ode to Saola:
Saola!
Dappled muzzle, in dappled light,
Retiring, graceful gazelle,
Lonely last of your race,
To walk
The Annamite Range,
Of Vietnam and Laos;
Exhale softly
On nibbled leaves,
As each raised hoof
Hopes to evade
A thousand and one
Hidden snares;
Oh friend, we pray for you,
Even as we pray for ourselves.
So, it’s been a week of Saola in the arts-! This is important, in fact, given that crucial elements of success in the challenging task of saving Saola will always be inspiration and creativity, wherever we can find them.
Feel free to join in! For the artistic types out there (and perhaps especially those who aren’t!), we invite you to compose and share your own sea shanty, other song, or verses for Saola. Consider putting this on your February to-do list as an antidote to the late-winter-and-still-in-corona-lockdown-alabaster-blues. Send us what you come up with, to info@saolafoundation.org, and we’ll post it on our website.
In the meantime, if any of you would like to leave a tip for songstress Lorraine or bard Tony and their Saola works, through a bit of donation to the Saola Foundation, you can do so through the donate button below.
Thank you! Keep calm, and save Saola.
All the Best