BENEATH THE WAVES – Shannon Blair via AI

Beneath the waves, a world unseen
Lies a kingdom of creatures, so diverse and keen
From the whales to the dolphins, the sharks to the rays
Each with their own story, and unique ways

But human actions, bring them all harm
Overfishing, pollution, and climate change alarm
Their homes destroyed, their families torn
Their fate uncertain, in this world forlorn

The sea turtles, caught in fishing gear
The octopus, losing their habitat to pollution so severe
The sea birds, with stomachs filled with plastic
Their suffering is real, it’s truly tragic

But we can make a change, it’s not too late
By choosing compassion, over our plate

Let us remember, these creatures of the sea
Are not so different from you and me
They deserve a chance, to live and thrive
Let’s take action, and work towards the abolition of fishing, so they can truly survive.

DON’T TEACH A MAN TO FISH: THE REMAKING OF A PROVERB – Andrew Kirschner

Give a man a fish and he will eat mercury for a day.
Teach a man to fish and he will eat until the ocean is empty.
Teach a man fishing is cruel and unnecessary
and that fish feel pain and suffer
and he will lead a more compassionate life,
oceans will survive,
and fish will live their natural lives.

https://kirschnerskorner.com/2014/05/04/dont-teach-a-man-to-fish/

FISH – D.H. Lawrence

Excerpt:
“I have waited with a long rod
And suddenly pulled a gold-and-greenish, lucent fish from
below,

And had him fly like a halo round my head,
Lunging in the air on the line.

Unhooked his gorping, water-horny mouth.

And seen his horror-tilted eye,
His red-gold, water-precious, mirror-flat bright eye;
And felt him beat in my hand, with his mucous, leaping
life-throb.

And my heart accused itself
Thinking: _I am not the measure of creation.
This is beyond me, this fish.

His God stands outside my God_.

And the gold-and-green pure lacquer-mucus comes off in my
hand,
And the red-gold mirror-eye stares and dies,
And the water-suave contour dims.

But not before I have had to know
He was born in front of my sunrise.
Before my day.

He outstarts me.
And I, a many-fingered horror of daylight to him,
Have made him die.”

Complete Poem: https://allpoetry.com/poem/8510225-Fish-by-D-H-Lawrence

FISH – Meish Goldish

How I wish
I were a fish!
My day would begin
Flapping my fins.
I’d make a commotion
Out in the ocean.
It would be cool
To swim in a school.
In the sea,
I’d move so free,
With just one thought:
Don’t get caught!

FRIENDS NOT FOOD – Maggie Sargent

The oceans are being depleted,
the ecosystems disrupted,
the fish suffocate to death!!!
Who are you, those that make art and glamour…
and Business…
over dead bodies?
I would laugh if it wasn’t so treacherous.
Dress up in your heels and blazers and go feed on the flesh of torture.
Exult dead fish dishes like they are art.
I have to move on
From the pathetic nature
Of stagnicity.
Fish are friends,
not food.

I HAVE NO AIR – Dina Israeli

I have no air !!… ”
He cried out from the hole of the net that drank him from the sad sea.
“… I have no air…! “He begged..
But no one heard. Because the fish don’t hear. We don’t count. Only when you weigh in.

For long minutes he stayed like this, out of the water, to his house, mouth gap, trying to fight, survive, stand out.
Let them see him. May it not be transparent…

But no one noticed him. He was one of the falcons in honor of the holy Sabbath.
And he died too. Like all his friends on the network.
A long and cruel death.

The noise of the Friday market. The screams of the criminals are confusing each other. Celebration.
Punishment expedited for last shopping, the fish you buy in the end. Because it’s fresh.
The sea is a touching distance.

And he was also bought for Shabat dismantled into pieces.
Manoylan. Nicely organized inside the Calker tray.
And he was blessed on the table with the white map and wine.
And you are the mother of the house blessed, because she is a “woman of army”.

And he returned to the sea. Through the sewer pipes.
Once again he is home. This time and forever.

They are not being heard. They don’t get noticed.
Fuck disappearing in the red sauce.
How lucky we are not them.

https://www.facebook.com/dina.israeli.73/posts/3071807723037839

I NO LONGER STEAL FROM NATURE – Al-Ma’arri (973-1057)

You are diseased in understanding and religion.
Come to me, that you may hear something of sound truth.
Do not unjustly eat fish the water has given up,
And do not desire as food the flesh of slaughtered animals,
Or the white milk of mothers who intended its pure draught
for their young, not noble ladies.
And do not grieve the unsuspecting birds by taking eggs;
for injustice is the worst of crimes.
And spare the honey which the bees get industriously
from the flowers of fragrant plants;
For they did not store it that it might belong to others,
Nor did they gather it for bounty and gifts.
I washed my hands of all this; and wish that I
Perceived my way before my hair went gray!

I SEE – Dishanie Fernando

I see you day by day swimming in circles as I pass by
I see you trapped in a space with no way out
I see you being anxious and depressed
I see you looking for a way out
I see you losing your will to fight
I see you lonely and sad
I see you losing your vibrant colors
I see you and your fins are drooping and U R looking sick
And as I float on my side taking my last few breaths, I see you
Wait, this is my reflection…I see me.

I’M NOT JUST A FISH

I’m Not Just A Fish. I am a living, breathing, sentient animal. I can feel content, confident and well. I can feel fear, hunger, discomfort, stress and illness. I may pine for a lost tank mate, a lost partner. I can have likes and dislikes, friends and enemies.

I can communicate with others. I can socialise, collaborate. I can interact with other fish, other animals, even humans. I can see, hear, sleep, taste, process information. I act on instinct, and on learned knowledge. I can learn. I can remember.

I can defend my babies as a lioness would her cubs. I can see colours humans cannot. I can live in environments humans cannot. I can experience my world in a way humans cannot. I am a brilliant piece of nature’s design. I am not just a fish; I am a life.

IF FISH COULD SCREAM – Dr. Michael W. Fox

I had a dream
That fish could scream.
So there were no fishermen
For none could bear to hear
The screams of netted fish
Or tolerate the painful cries
Of those impaled on fishing lines.

Did God give silence to the fish
That we might never hear nor feel
Their fear and pain,
Just so we can eat them
With no twinge of shame
Or fellow-feeling?

We might ask what kind
of God would do this
To make all fish mute
And in their silence,
Suffer suffocation in our trawler nets,
Pain and terror on our hooks?

Perhaps that we might learn
To feel through silence
For the mute, the weak, the dumb,
Of our kind and fish kind
And all kind great and small.

MY NEW CLAM – Stephanie L. Binckli

A funny creature is my clam:
He doesn’t seem to give a damn
About how anxiously I am
Watching to see him move.

Without the use of feet or toes
Hands or fingers, eyes or nose,
Straight across the sand he goes
And leaves a groove.

I cannot tell which way he’ll face,
When travelling from place to place:
He may bewail his slothsome pace
In much exasperation,

And still, if he could talk aloud
He might be very, very proud
That Nature had so well endowed
A clam with transportation.

‘Tis plain he’s Master of his Soul;
He asks no aid to find his goal,
Nor even hollow out a hole
Wherein to dwell:

He has no worry, nor a care,
His food is in the water there,
And when the gold fish come and stare,
He shuts his shell.

ODE TO THE FISH – Ellen Bass from Like a Beggar

Nights, when I can’t sleep, I listen to the sea lions
barking from the rocks off the lighthouse.

I look out the black window into the black night
and think about the fish stirring the ocean.

Muscular tuna, their lunge and thrash
churning the water to froth,
whipping up a squall, storm of hunger.

Herring cruising, river of silver in the sea,
wide as a lit city. And all the small breaths:
pulse of frilled jellyfish, thrust of squid,
frenzy of krill, transparent skin glowing
green with the glass shells of diatoms.

Billions swarming up the water column each night,
gliding down at dawn. They’re the greased motor
that powers the world, whirring
Mixmaster folding the planet’s batter.

Shipping heat to the Arctic, hauling cold
to the tropics, currents unspooling around the globe.
My room is so still, the bureau lifeless,
and on it, inert, the paraphernalia of humans:
keys, coins, shells that once rocked in the tides —
opalescent abalone, pearl earrings.

Only the clock’s sea green numerals
register their small changes. And shadows
the moon casts — fan of maple branches —
tick across the room. But beyond the cliffs
a blue whale sounds and surfaces, cosmic
ladle scooping the icy depths. An artery so wide,
I could swim through into its thousand pound heart.

PIRANHA FISHING IN THE PANTANAL – Lisa Kemmerer

After an evening of peering through binoculars
at long knobby red legs and bright bills,
visitors in colorful blouses and collared khaki shirts
ply dark waters
with clear lines dangling from bamboo poles
that sport a square cube of beef
on a bright barb.

Gasps and squeals
override the gentle lapping of waves
as pale hands pull up a flipping, gasping fish—
famous for teeth that now betray her—
and a silvery hook slides into her mouth
and out through an eye.

I wonder if she felt the water’s wonderful ways
one last time
as she was yanked from her kind
and her kingdom
and I turn my back on shrill chatter
to sit on the bow of the boat
and watch the sun set,
wishing for a world where people can see
what is in a fish’s eye.

SEA CREATURES – Meish Goldish

Come along, come with me,
Take a dive in the deep blue sea.
Put on your gear, let’s explore
All the way to the ocean floor!

See that snail wrapped in curls?
Look! An oyster wearing pearls!
Watch the octopus oh so dark,
But don’t you dare to pet the shark!

Dive on down, seaward bound,
Motion in the ocean is all around!
Dive on down, seaward bound,
Motion in the ocean is all around!

Now we’re very far below,
The lantern fish are all aglow.
Is that a tiny shock you feel?
You just met an electric eel!

Giant blue whales start to stir,
Bigger than dinosaurs ever were!
Wave good-bye to the squid and sponge,
This is the end of our deep-sea plunge!

Dive on down, seaward bound,
Motion in the ocean is all around!
Dive on down, seaward bound,
Motion in the ocean is all around!

SONNET TO A CLAM – John Godfrey Saxe

INGLORIOUS friend!
most confident I am
Thy life is one of very little ease;

Albeit men mock thee with their similes
And prate of being “happy as a clam!”

What though thy shell protects thy fragile head
From the sharp bailiffs of the briny sea?

Thy valves are, sure, no safety-valves to thee,
While rakes are free to desecrate thy bed,
And bear thee off, — as foemen take their spoil, —
Far from thy friends and family to roam;

Forced, like a Hessian, from thy native home,
To meet destruction in a foreign broil!

Though thou art tender, yet thy humble bard
Declares, O clam! thy case is shocking hard!

THE ACT OF VIOLENCE – Tamara Thompson

Today I decided to enjoy the river.
I began swimming up stream as the sunlight cascades on my face.
I am in bliss taking in all the beauty that surrounds me.
I hear the birds singing, bugs buzzing, and gurgling of the water as it flows around each stone and plant.
I feel the waves of current cascading against my body.
How can life get any better?
Lunch!
Swimming makes me hungry.

Suddenly I feel a sharp pain in my face.
I’m confused and panicked.
I begin thrashing about as I understand it’s some foreign object that has gotten lodged within my cheek.
I don’t focus upon the damage I may cause to my body because all I can think about is getting the metal out of my face!
I struggle begging for help, but I feel a strong pull from my face.
I didn’t realize the hurt could intensify!

Now I’m battling with the immense pain in my face as well as my body being pulled in a direction I don’t wish to go!
I fight!
With every ounce of energy,
I fight!

Why is this happening?
What are they doing to me?
Why me?
These questions filter through my thoughts as I try to subside the waves of hot pain in my face!
I use every ounce of strength to break free, but sadly I was captured.

As I was pulled against the current, I become battered all over!
Aching, as my afflicted body gets pulled to the shore!

All I can feel, all I can focus upon is radiating pain!

My hope dwindles and I think
“please make this all stop!”

I’m crying but no one seems to care!

“Please hear me pleading for mercy!”

“Just let me live and swim!”

Mercy falls upon deaf ears!
Their is no consideration for my life!
Nothing but suffering unleashed upon me!

Have you ever been sliced with a knife so deeply that every single nerve is on fire?

No amount of pressure can be applied to quench that pain!
No drugs administered to soothe the horror!
You try to stop your heart from beating! Try to hold your breath and loosen up your muscles to ease the intensity but it’s all in vain!

You are helpless to stop what’s happening to you and broken from the struggle!
Your mind doesn’t STOP PROCESSING the nightmare!

All you are left with is gasps for breath?
How long does it take to stop breathing?
How long does my body struggle to survive before I can make it all stop!
It hurts to breathe, it hurts to not breathe!

No pain compares with this!
You beg to die just for the relief!

You try to figure out why you are targeted!
You beg that this would all just be over!
You now are slowly suffocating along with the pain of your injuries!
This isn’t just mere minutes,
but can take hours!

You count down every second and time slows down to intensify the misery!
Time is cruel!

All of your senses are overwhelmed with intense agony that doesn’t subside until you resolve yourself to dying!
Until that very last breath is taken and you release yourself into the heavens!

I am the fish you decided was
Sport instead of life!

My suffrage meant nothing to you!
My torment, trauma, and hurt was just a moment of your day!
I was captured like a trophy in your photography!
A literal drop within your bucket!
Some may even mount me on their wall!
Some will fry me in their pan and tear at my flesh like a cannibal!
But not before slicing me open and ripping apart my insides like a rag doll!
Some do this before I take my last breath!
All in utter disregard for me!

Just know, this is the traumatically excruciating, terrorizing experience you caused by your lacking of empathy!
Before any consideration was granted for my life!

Before anyone makes the excuses of how fish die all of the time, understand nature!
All nature has natural selection.
It’s the way for the circle of life to rotate.
Predators sense disease and injury in order to evolve each species.
Humans don’t do that!
They murder the healthy and strong as a trophy!
They destroy the evolutionary process with egocentrism and control.
They do this in mass quantities without regard on entire ecosystems!

When eaten by a predator it’s a design of swift action without the agonizing torturous application!

Humans were designed by nature with consciousness to prevent such barbarism!
Not to evolve technological advances for mass murdering of nature!
To be the teachers of kindnesses and equality!

Yet, instead they heed a call to master a planet that they themselves destroy!

I had survived humans poisoning my rivers!
I had survived the desolation of the lands!
I had survived storms and natural disasters!
I had survived all natural predators!

I had grown to be the most beautiful fish in the river, glistening with color and reflective of light!

I had mattered and created life for my river!

You stripped me of my dignity and ignored the respect I earned in this life!

You hurt me in ways that cannot be conveyed by simple words!

THE CONTRITE ANGLER – FOR HEIDI STEPHENSON – Jeff Cloves

lovely fishes flash through
where the bridge
is risen
their silver sides
catch the light
from sunshine’s prism
I used to try
to catch and hook them
oh my may I
be forever forgiven

THE FISH WHO FAILED TO SCREAM – Noël Sweeney, AnimalAdvocates.co.uk

He threw the line that fooled the fish
The rusty hook caught the bream
He could hardly see her struggle
Part of the joy of his serene dream
As he overcame her strength
By the rising line and his length
Catching her silver scale in the stream
He was secretly glad fish do not scream

The bent hook curled around her throat
The time was right for his lucky strike
Close on the surface he grabbed her
The prize was a splashing thrashing pike
He found her fight added to the delight
Using his power and all his might
Catching her silver scale in the stream
He was secretly glad fish do not scream

He threw the lasso into the river
Intent on catching another carp
His jagged hook and line and sinker
Reflected his mind blunt and sharp
Like the last throw of a cardsharp
Wanting to make sure he got that carp
Catching her silver scale in the stream
He was secretly glad fish do not scream

Intending on ending with a perky perch
He stood close to the fast water’s ledge
His line got caught in a drooping birch
That dragged him to the snagged edge
Losing balance he slipped on the bank
A crooked hook in his tongue as he sank
Angler and line swinging in the stream
Both gripped beneath the vice slipstream

Beneath the water open-mouthed
Bubbles killed his fish-like shout
The perch was dragged down and out
While the angler was dragged all about
The spreading pain shot through him
His life flashed in a nightmare scheme
Echoed by his heart-rending scream
Followed by scream-after-scream

In that moment he lost all doubt
About the cold-fish-no-pain shout
The angler so often used to spout
A different time and a different theme
Drowned as if he was another bream
Sinking as no one heard his stifled scream
Like catching her silver scale in the stream
His heart went boom-boom-boom
Seeing the crashing flashing watery tomb
No longer secretly glad fish do not scream

THIS FISHES LIFE – Hope2thefuture

As I rush through the water,
With my daughter,
I feel the water gently tickle my fins,

Now,
I’m ready for my day to begin.
As the sun pierces the waters veil,
I feel it warm my tail.

The beauty I see,
It never fails.
I glide through this water,
The beauty does not falter.

I see beings big and small,
With cliffs that are a great fall.
I see bright colors flash,
As school’s pass.

I see hues of green and blue,
That ensue,
As I chase down todays food.
I see a little bit so,
I bite!

Little did I know,
It was for my life I would have to fight.
A sharp pain pierces my flesh,
Fear and pain are meshed.

A hook tears my face,
I am gone without a trace.
Ripped from the water,
Away from my daughter,
I fear I will be slaughtered.
I cannot breathe,
I cannot scream,
These creatures are so mean.

I lay here dying and,
They laugh about frying [me].
My death they find fun but,
This is no witty pun.

I am dying slowly,
These creatures are lowly.
My blood runs down my face,
I wish I did not have to die in this place.

In this puddle of blood,
I lay,
I know this is my final day.
My body burns,
As I grasp for my last breath.
This is my death……

They laugh and they joke,
With a knife they begin to poke.
Oh if only I could have spoke!

As my body flops,
My hearts stops.
My world turns black,
There is no going back.

My daughter is now alone,
As they leave nothing left but my bones and,
Sit on their murderous thrones.

Please remember my story,
Though,
It is a bit gory.
Murder is not to entertain,
Please do not let my death be in vain.
Life must be sustained.

THIS FISHES LIFE – Martin Strain

Water on and endless horizon,
Warm to the touch.
You flow through my gills as I race through you.
I am free…
Alive,
And happy.

From the surface I see something…..
Food.
Days without I’m famished.
To the top I go, starving for a morsel
One bite is all it takes, to whisk my life away.

In my mouth a throbbing pain, I wish it would go away.
Intense pain, but I cannot scream.
Aboard I lay, I cannot breath.
I weep…..what will happen to me.
Strange creatures before me….they wish to kill me.
Above my head a bloody knife…….I know my time is up.
Flashes of life in my mind…….
I was happy
I was free…….and you killed me.