One of my favourite poets was and will always be Rainer Maria Rilke.
Bohemian born in 1875 he is considered one of the German language`s greatest 20th century poets.
Working with the sculptor Auguste Rodin in the early 1900 he learned about the value of objective observation which led him to my personal fav poem which often comes to my mind while creating another tiger or African theme bead:

The Panther

His vision, from the constantly passing bars,
has grown so weary that it cannot hold
anything else. It seems to him there are
a thousand bars; and behind the bars, no world.

As he paces in cramped circles, over and over,
the movement of his powerful soft strides
is like a ritual dance around a center
in which a mighty will stands paralyzed.

Only at times, the curtain of the pupils
lifts, quietly--. An image enters in,
rushes down through the tensed, arrested muscles,
plunges into the heart and is gone.

Rainer Maria Rilke