Ode to Iguacu Falls (by Three Tme Poet Laureaate)

Ode to Iguaçu Falls
(or: “The Cry of Iguaçu Falls”)

By Three Time Poet Laureate,
Dennis L. Siluk, Ed.D.


In the blue and green landscape, around Iguaçu,
where, when day is prepared,
With two-hundred and forty-waterfalls, stillness
never glides without sound,
Blueness, from the rising sun, to sunset,

There is a cry, as of the longing soul in the
landscape.
The long, inconsolable rumble of isolation
And wetness of the wide rapid-like falls—

Startles the traveler, with a sound so
drear—
As if the world is being flooded—a blue day,
Like the dark days of war, in grim rainy weather.

My heart stands still and listens, crosses
itself and whispers:
Two-hundred and sixty degrees of waterfalls,
And then the Devil’s Throat!...

Yes it ponders: grander than Nigeria,
or Victoria,
I know them well; here— 400, 000-gallons of
Water per second that cries from heaven…!

As one wanders, around this canyon like
falls,
For human understanding, perhaps prayer
He becomes baptized within God’s footprint!


Poem: 2667/3-17-2010
Note: the Poet has been to Iguaçu two times



Note: The waterfall system consists of 275 falls along 2.7 kilometers (1.67 miles) of the Iguaçu River. Position is at latitude (DMS): 25° 40' 60 S, longitude (DMS): 54° 25' 60 W. Some of the individual falls are up to 82 meters (269 ft) in height, though the majority is about 64 meters (210 ft). The Devil's Throat, U-shaped, is 82-meters-high, 150-meter-wide and 700-meter-long (490 by 2300 feet) cataract, is the most impressive of all the falls, and marks the border between Argentina and Brazil. Two thirds of the falls are within Argentine territory.