Two Poems on the Amazon, and a Philosophy

The Giant Toad
(…of the Amazon)


One night after dinner my wife and I heard the wings of birds fighting in the dark: and with a few lit gas lamps along the wooden walkway of our campsite, we still couldn’t see a thing, though, only the walkway. Past our hut flowed the steady beating of the wings.

The Amazon is never settled down, gloomy at night it can be, the sounds dominate, takes the edge off a man, or puts them on—, possibly defeat might be the thing it seeks.

A huge brown toad stood in the outhouse (that evening), looking at me, like a rhino, just staring (‘…what a time to rush me,’ I thought). “Now its toads…” I said to myself “What next?”

#1221 12/16/06



Little Kingdoms
of the Amazon

In the Amazon
there are kingdoms
breathing, eating
roaming about
in perfect harmony
(insects and birds,
monkeys and wildcats
and macho black ants!)
that is why the
Amazon
is never quiet
it’s those foot-steps,
moving all night
and all day—long!

#1225 2/20/06 I had spent a week in the Peruvian Amazon, deep into its interior, it is never silent, and at night, it seems even more so, as if the whole environment is restless.


Philosophy of the Amazon


All will vanish in time. And so we build statues, monuments to be remembered by, but these too will disappear as the stars will but nothing stops us from building a little world beyond the grave, thinking ‘I will return on the ramparts of the city of the gods.’ Somewhere along the line, we learn three things: deep in man’s genes, is the primeval monster, the Tiamat. We learn, whatever we do, it is only important in this immediate effect. We learn, all will vanish, and if we do not discover these things in the little time we have, we still die. In the Amazon, it is better to learn how to swim, to hunt, and to be watchful, everything else I just said is gobbledygook, to the natives there. Dlsiluk (4-2009)