Tuesday, August 27, 2019

THE AMAZON


Hello, everyone,

The devastating fires in the most important lung of our planet, make me remember the summer of 2009 and my participation as a fellow in the Plymouth Writing Project (PWP) at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, U.S.A. A poem entitled THE AMAZON resulted from one of the writing experiences. It started with the quick writing of a paragraph and my partner, who was another Dominican university professor, suggested me to change it into a poem. After reading the poem, do not hesitate and leave a comment. What connections can you make between the poem and the disaster?





 THE AMAZON


Máximo Encarnación G.


Magic place
I haven’t been there, but I have somehow.
I can feel this vast piece of nature in my blood.

Oh, the river with her name, The Amazon River.
Its waters flow in my veins
like the waters in Río Yaque del Sur
irrigating dry forgotten lands in the Dominican Republic.
Letting life flow is their sacred commitment.

There is an eternal connection
between me and The Amazon,
the extended territory that
softly touches
Brazil, Chile, Venezuela....
These places help me breathe.

I feel you
beating inside my lungs
I see your rain falling in my tears.
I love you
for what you are,
a precious part of our green and brown
and black and yellow and white planet.


You, The Amazon,
live in my heart and in my tears.
I don’t know why
they don’t leave you alone.
Why
are they cutting
one of the most important veins
of our Mother Earth?
Don’t they know
that with your death
the whole humankind vanishes, too?

One day,
every breathing creature will wake up
and, with happy-wet-wide-open eyes
see that they will have stopped forever
that angry rush against you,
against all of us!
Plymouth 2009 

3 comments:

  1. Wow , how deep and heart felt! Maximo, we need to walk and "breath the green" of the forest soon. Barry Draper

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Maximo. it is an honor for me to be part of your contacts to be able to share experiences as beautiful and educational as these. I loved the labyrinth that looks like a number 6, the sand plant and above all the poem, "The Amazon" which besides being beautiful, carries an important message to humanity about the destruction of the planet that man indiscriminately does, without thinking that by killing nature , he is killing himself.
    Congratulations on that beautiful production.
    Maricela Martinez

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Maricela,
      Sorry for the late reply. I am glad you liked that particular image from C.R. I am happy for your reaction to THE AMAZON. I wrote it in Plymouth, NH while having one of my writing experiences abroad. Many participants in the Summer Writing Project liked it. Thanks for visiting my blogs, too.

      Delete

SUMMER WRITING IN ENGLISH AT UASD

Hello, everyone,  During the summer of 2023, my English Composition I class wrote about their favorite places. Here are four of their best p...