I AM

I am soaring, snowcapped peaks
and flat, grassy plains
I am lush rivers gurgling over
smooth stones and rocks
I am lanky eucalyptus forests
hushing in the breeze

I am the sound of toads
croaking in the damp of night...
of cicadas chirring and macaws
calling in the jungle.
I am the chirping of birds,
the cooing of pigeons and doves,
and the horn of the gas truck.

I am the smell of fritada and potatoes,
fried bread and cheese...
I am humitas, llapingachos,
Fioravanti and Agua Güitig
I am café con leche,
and fried eggs,
jugo de tomate de árbol,
naranjilla,
and powdered milk

I am the páramo, [the highlands]
    the selva [the jungle]
       the costa [the coast]

I am pristinely crisp, fresh,
high-altitude air,
and polluted inner-city diesel.
I am roses and flower gardens
and rich, dark dirt.

I am ponchos and tagua nut,
bamboo and balsa
I am weavings, wood carvings,
straw, pottery and beads

I am your deepest roots
the intensest of blue skies
all-consuming grey-clouded thunderstorms
and natural caves

I am large, heavily-populated cities
and vast untouched landscapes
I am the middle of the earth
and the beginning of evolution

I am erupting volcanoes
and enormous landslides,
I am earthquakes and floods
I am waterfalls, lakes, and oceans
natural hot springs,
and carbonated mineral baths

I am power plants,
    generators,
        and camp fires,
mansions
     mud huts
       and plastic tents
chandeliers
    flashlights
       and candles

I am shopping malls
 ... and beggars,
I am roadside impromptu barbecue stands
I am saltwater taffy
pulled from a hook in a doorway
and fresh-cut sugarcane
dripping with sweetness

I am open-air butchers with dripping blood and flies.
I am home-pasteurized, dairy-fresh milk
I am street-side fruit stands
with sellers calling out their wares
I am handsewn clothes

I am revolution and political upheaval
I am celebrations and dancing
I am holiday after holiday after holiday.

I am the depths and heights of humanity
I am the heights and depths of nature
I am peace and tranquility and love
I am the essence of life.

*
You are from here...
and here is where you still belong.

© drc 2006

photos all of Ecuador.
Photo credits unknown

photo credit via link
poetry by drc
  

photo credit via link

A QUENCHING SENSE OF ONENESS

I revel in the warm, soft rain
that caresses me from the sky

leaving rivulets of wetness
trailing down
my face and arms

No question of running for cover.
Instead,
I lay myself down

and with eyes shut tight
I soak it up
like a sponge.

With the rest of the earth,
I absorb the rain.

It covers,
fills,
then drenches
and quenches
my weary,
parched soul.

And the earth
supports my being

in an all-consuming
connectedness
like none I've felt before.

The sky ...
The earth ...
The universe ...

The rain ...
The dirt ...

... and me.

© drc 2006

original drawing altered by drc

TURN IT AROUND

Love away
my pain-filled tears
with the tenderness of your kiss

Caress away
my trembling fears
with the gentleness of your touch

and take me there -
oh...
please take me there:
to that exquisite place

where I can
whirl with the stars
in breathless dizziness...

and cause my soul
to weep again,
but now with tears of bliss.

©drc 2006
 

a repost from last year...

photo credit via link

THE UNDOING OF EASTER

It's the Easter bunny, honey
making Easter Basket stops
It has naught to do with Easter
but a lot to do with shops.

Bunnies don't lay eggs
so tell me what's the deal there?
Just eat your chocolate bunnies
and the creme-filled eggs with care

Jelly beans are in on it
'cause they are egg-shaped treats
Find your basket, eat your fill:
Get sick from all the sweets.

Religious! Pagan! Secular!
Another holiday:
A chocolate-coated weekend
commercialized away.

© drc 2005

photo credit via link

SELF-SENSORING

Be proud of me, I softly said:
I held my thoughts, though I saw red.
I bit my lip until it bled
Instead of biting off your head.

© drc 2006

HUNGER

It's underneath my skin:
that extreme sense of need
that desire for holding back
    nothing.

Let 'er rip!

It's tingling in my veins
that constant awareness
that invisible beacon
    sounding.

I'm in heat!

It's itching in my fingers
that insatiable craving
that near pain in my chest
    aching

I need more!

It's consuming my thoughts
that lascivious longing
that blinding-white urgency
    screaming

NOW!

© drc 2006

*R-Rated Language Warning!*

photo credit via link

LITTLE BLUE WALLS

grinding teeth in frustration
don't you get it?

unable to see past the
little blue walls
you've built around yourself
in a silent rage
that you have labeled "responsibility"

and now you think
there's nowhere else to go
because you've
completely boxed yourself in.

now you think
(since you've boxed yourself in)
that those fucking little blue walls
are the entirety of your world...

and
dammit
you left us outside

so you sit
screaming in frustration
and slapping cuffs
on your own wrists.

"I can't move!"
    you cry
"there's nowhere to go!"
    you moan
"I have no life!"
    you whine

        YOU. FUCKING. IDIOT!

the key is in your own damn pocket
and all it takes
to shove down those walls
is a little push.

just a little. fucking. push.

but no...
you'd rather cry
you'd rather whine
you'd rather moan in self pity

sorry!

I  can't.

I can't
    push your fucking walls down

you'd scream at me
    in a self-pitying terror,
about how much they should be there:
your fucking little blue walls

and how you are doomed
to live within them
and let them rule you

I won't go there

I can't
    make you better
I can't
    improve your life
I can't
    ease your stress

YOU WON'T LET ME!

and your
fucking little blue walls
keep me out
just as much as they
box you in.

for now
you only let me see

the box in the corner
made up of
fucking little blue walls

I love you,
dammit!

but I can't convince you
you're any better off
than you
think
you
are.

you refuse
to get outside the box!

all you can see
is blue.

© drc 2006

PHOSPHOROUS AND FRICTION

Catch me on fire with
that heat that I see.
I sense that you're burning
    Is that flame for me?

        ~

Your heart's little arsonist:
that's what I am...
and I see that heart burst into flame.

Deliciously hot
hitting just the right spot -
so burn for me, baby, I'm game!

© drc 2006

 

LED TO SOAR

With sweetest abandon
    I'm led (not at random)
to let myself go, and I yearn.

He says bringing me pleasure
    is his greatest treasure
and sensing my want makes him burn

So how could I resist
    that delicious a twist
I cannot imagine denying.

Throwing care to the wind
    all my cautions rescind
I let go and I find myself flying.

© drc 2006