Yes, this is about the Cataracts of Iguacu (Iguazu) you can scroll toward the bottom.
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| Cataracts of Iguazu (Foz de Iguacu) The World's Highest Waterfalls |
Slight Detour: Check out how I got to the Inauguration in D.C. and my Open Letter to President Obama and An Inaugural Poem I wrote for President Obama. Background Notes to the poem I wrote in Honor of President Obama's Inauguration are available in Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV.
Click here for An Open Letter to President Obama.
The Cataracts of Paradise is my version of the story based on the highest waterfall in the world, the Cataracts of Iguazu (or Iguacu with the funny little squiggle on the bottom of the "c") that runs between Brazil and Argentina.
The name means "really big water". The background story is the typical tragic one of star-crossed lovers, Naipi and Taroba. A (male) god saw Naipi and fell in love with her (beauty) but she preferred her mortal lover (really?) and as they were fleeing from the spurned and wrathful god down the river Iguazu, the god split the river in half (much like Moses) separating the lovers for eternity.
(The funny thing is, I never read or heard of this story before I wrote this poem. The reason I thought of such a similar story is that I started thinking of Naiads and water nymphs, and drowning men--a la Odysseus but I guess those were water sirens--as is my wont when around or reading about water. Of course, being a poet, my story had to have a tragic ending as well. Don't ask me where God came in. He just did. In my version, the water nymph started out that way, not human, and wants to become human to be with her human love. In the traditional story, I guess the lovers are human.)
It is at this precarious juncture that those who try to navigate the falls will not come out alive. Hence, it has come to be known as Garganta del Diablo, which means Devil's Throat. (I did hear that is was called the Devil's Throat when I was traveling nearby but did not have time to take a detour there.)
In the traditional story, the rejected godling is vengeful. In my story (and I have no idea why I wrote such a similar story), God is a little sad that the nymph girl wants to leave, but God lets her go anyway, knowing that she won't be any happier in human form. But alas, humans (and newly transformed naiads-to-maidens must learn things for themselves. The hard way.
The Cataracts of Paradise
The cataracts of Iguacu
fall from the steps
of highness
down to the arms
of el Diablo
and roar into the dryness.
Diablo’s arms encircle falls
that crash down
his enfolding.
Yet all the drops rise back on high
to blight
his infernal holding.
A kind of space
within the
walls
forms at Diablo’s base,
where nothing
moves or shivers--
except one lonely grace.
They say upon a time
there once
was formed
inside the mind
of god a fancy
passing fair
kept separate from mankind.
he kept it lone at Iguacu
for
this fancy
passing fair was such
a thing of peerless grace,
which man
should never touch.
there lived a
maid thing
of
the trees.
Her form was like a veil of mist.
Her
hair was of the breeze.
Her shape was of a comeliness
that set man
in her thralls.
Her song was cousin
to
the sirens
and her eyes
were
of the Falls.
For in the falls she saw her down
a fate made
even fairer,
Within her eye a sight
of
Him,
therefrom
gleams
her
terror.
But something happened long ago,
They say: upon a yearly
a man did
touch the passing fair
so
that Iguacu fell
severely.
Come far and wide like many men
from whence
He came is hidden.
He only knew he came to taste
the fruits
that were forbidden.
But really He was not a man
but boy
between the line
of
gravity and boundless fancy,
He chose what
he could find.
With vigor did He seek a spirit
whose life
the lore was told
if caught
could give him
His
desire
beyond the worth of gold.
He stood there on a ledge that thrust
into
the waterfall.
And when he spied the two bright eyes
fell he within her thrall.
She saw him too
and
too at once
a longing sprung
within her
form.
It sprouted like an evil weed
and
yet her heart was warm.
Her heart, though really she had not
a heart to
feel
the
things of bliss,
that souls can feel, but yet
she
could
endure what part-souls cannot miss.
And so her half-soul felt a warming
as such a
part-soul might permit,
but
with it at the time
and same
a pin of cold
went
through it.
For she was not of blood and sinew
mere substance
of fire
and
vim,
a soulless pittance that feared
her
fate
from
god, who made his whim.
She had no corporality
to
make the love He desired.
Thus He prayed
to god to give
her essence
what love required.
God listened and as usual
he gave a
saddened sigh,
and gave up what was asked of him
to
her that lived on high.
Drawn long and pale
in
resignation
she shimmered
into state,
diminished by her body,
she
came full to her fate.
She has a soul so long as she
is
bathed within the falls.
Yet if she ever
crashes down. . .
is tender for the walls.
Through moonlight upon the falls
erupts a light
of kind unseen
in this they bathed in love
unhallowed.
Came nothing in between.
They wallowed in infinity
the
nymph girl and her boy
and
with uncommon might
and main
he gave her body joy.
She had the limbs of heaven’s ease
in
which He glorified
and paid the ransom of the saints--
like
them:
divinely died.
And with her new-found faith did she,
moan soft idolatries.
Yet god awayed his grief
and
pretended not to see.
Sometime in their love
that was
the
nymph girl gave a shudder.
She slipped through
her love’s embrace
and
broke him as no other.
And in the moment when she fell
the cataracts
grew mute.
The
only sound that could be heard
were
her trees that followed suit.
She let no scream pass through her lips
nor tear fall
from
her eye.
Though terror reigned again complete
beginning from on high.
Her body viscerated in
the
mists
that rise from
the
wall’s embrace.
Save the bright terror
of
her eyes,
her soul flows
unencased.
Thus now she is part mist and nymph,
a half-soul he
cannot hold.
And
he knows why there are
some things
that god
leaves from the fold.
The falls fell fey
upon that day
their nymph
became their leaven.
Still He laments why there are things
that god brings not to heaven.
The falls changed with a slightness
like a line that was
lengthened
Still men blight the cataracts
whose walls
were ever strengthened.
Thus she may never leave the falls
until He can defer
a love
without the boon of god
but then he would not
need her.
He cups his hands upon the ledge
to catch the
eyes
that
downpour
But the nymph of Iguacu
will
fall
for ever and
for more.
Yet once or twice a moonlit night
a
drop of falls shines clearer
these are, they say, the bright eyes
of
terror
that grips her even dearer.
A glimpse he often gets of her
that paid all
for their love.
but never catching her bright eyes
he looks
ceaselessly above.
And as she falls she seeks salvation
he solely can
confer--
but the steps to heaven bid him pass
so long as he
is
without her.
But with his soul he still does hope
and
never will forget
nor she but with her soul
has only
memory
and
no regret.
Let no man doubt that
Eden
and hell
are linked by Iguacu
Just peer into
the eyes of her
that lives and joins the two.
The cataracts of Iguacu
fall down from
Paradise
raining down twice heaven’s
length
into
Diablo’s vise.
And in the falls there is a girl
who
endlessly pays the toll
for reaching
out
beyond her fancy
with which to reach her soul.
~~*~~*~*~*~*~*~~~*~*~~*~~**~*~**~***~*~**~*~*
MY OTHER WRITINGS
If you want to get political, here's a an Inaugural Poem I wrote for President Obama. No, he didn't ask me to, lol, I just wanted to do it. or get it on Amazon (better formatting) My
Inaugural Poem for President Obama. I also wrote a satire, A Tale of Two Romneys. Either you like both or your hate both. =-P
Remember, if you like this poem, give it a thumbs up or a like or whatever it is to let your friends (or hostiles) know!
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