The Pheasant, Wizard Award Winner Options

[Guest_Nina_*]

James

You are most welcome

Nina

[Guest_Jox_*]

John good to meet you - I'll say Hello properly over in your poem, which I'm off to crit after replying to this and fetching a cuppa.

Thank you very much for popping in and commenting.

This piece did make me chuckle.  I'm something of a fan of humour that subverts convention, and while I'm not unfamiliar with the idea of arming prey, I thought this was fresh way of approaching the subject.

Thank you very much. I intended it as a jocular piece until the end, though not humorous per se. Nevertheless, quite a few critics have said it is humorous so be it. I didn't think I'd see prey armed before but Nina highlighted another poem which did it and, now I think more, most Tom & Jerry cartoons do it too.

>>I was slightly confused to begin with as to why hunters would shout "Pheasant!" like that, but that fell into place once I realised it was one nasty pheasant they were dealing with.  

Well, I thought of the pheasant as exercising pro-active self -defence (you know the sort of thing - Let's invade Iraq because they must have WMD aimed at us, which can be activated in 45 mins etc). But, of course, in the hunters' case, they were actually out hunting pheasant...  the alert was meant to work t'other way too - a shout so they could aim their guns and not miss an opportunity. I should have called the pheasant “Blair.” Then again, I respect and agree with the pheasant’s motives.

>>As for my own views, I too disagree with hunting purely for sport.  However, the majority of the hunters I have met/chatted with are bowhunters in the US, and they have a strong ethical sense of the responsibilities of hunting (they only hunt what they're going to eat, they take great care to kill as quickly as possible, etc.).  I have no problem with the fact that they also derive pleasure from the experience of pitting their stealth against the senses of their quarry.

I would exclude hunting for food from my criticism. If we are to be a meat-eating species - and that does not seem unreasonable, many species are - then the most humane kill is best. Leaving the birds in the wild and fast-killing seems the best way to me... then again, I'm not being targeted.

My contention was that killing for sport, in my opinion, is wrong (e.g. fox hunting and pheasant hunting for sport etc). I have no comment to make on the pleasure hunters take  - ok, I have; I find it an unpleasant base instinct - but that doesn't matter. These people need to eat (especially after a long day hunting!) so whatever else they derive from it is of no matter to me, nor to the murdered birds.

In actual fact, I am more guilty of harming animals than your bowhunter friends - because I eat meat killed at abattoirs. I eat meat which is intensively farmed. These must be bigger crimes. So it is better that the hunters kill their food quickly in the wild. I feel I ought to address mass farming and the mass slaughter which puts meat in our stomachs, too - but poems etc tend to creep up on me and that topic hasn’t... yet.

>>Anyway, I'm somewhat off topic now, so I'll close.

No more so than most people here - me included. We do need to focus on each other’s work - but I feel you’ve done very well here - especially by addressing the meaning of my poem. You (and some others) have taken slightly different meanings to the ones I intended in parts - which I always find fascinating. Different people do bring different interpretations - I really like that aspect of art.

Thank you very much John. Most interesting. After that cuppa, I’ll be across to look at your first post. Cheerio now,

James.