Where I Get Ideas for New Poems

Whenever people ask me, since I am rather prolific in the poetry I write, where do I get all my ideas for new poems, I usually answer with, "From the world all around me -- what I observe, conversations I hear, what I read/see in the newspaper, TV, magazines, Internet, or movies, and from my imagination after thinking about some issue or question. Many of my storoems/poems reflect my core values and thoughts regarding current events."

My latest poem is entitled "The Roar of the Lion". It may be read here:
http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1682063-The-Roar-of-the-Lion

Where did the idea for the poem originate? From several sources actually. I saw a movie on cable TV the other night about a lion preserve in Africa in which the owner had raised lion cubs and released them into the wild for over thirty years. Richard Harris played that character's role. The man would walk with his lions out to sit on a rock overlooking the plains below and encourage them to roar. He'd 'roar' the words "I am!", meaning "I am king of the beasts; I am a lion." The lions would then roar in response.

This reminded me of a TV documentary I had watched several years back that followed a pride of lions in Africa for a year. The male who was master of this pride successfully drove off various attempts from nomadic single males to displace him. Finally, a pair of nomadic siblings challenged him and together defeated him, breaking one of his front legs and blooding him gravely. He wander off to die, while the brothers immediately killed all of the old lion's offspring so that the pride's females would become receptive in a few months to producing their offspring. The dominant males usually rule a pride for only 1 or 2 years, sometimes up to three years, before being displaced. This gives them time to produce offspring to carry on their genes, but then introduces new genes into the pride when the new male lion(s) take over.

I then went to Internet and Googled "lions roaring" and read several articles about their roar(s) and what they are believed by scientists to mean.

Taking all these sources, I thought for several days about what I wanted my poem to accomplish and then wrote the first draft, followed by several edits. I am pretty pleased with the result. Please let me know what you think after you read my poem.

Cheers!

Harry