Cook's Delight

I sit here in Berkhamsted
miles from Ecuador
but having seen her beauty
My heart needs more and more
The wisdom of the mountains
the silence I'm in awe
I gaze across those summits
and I'm very very sure

Cavemen saw what we see
I am privileged to say
The child in me does wander
through such aeon's every day
The spirit of those landscapes
A gorge and a ravine
the vastness of the sky scapes
where few around have been

The impact it has had on me
A poet to be sure
I cannot get enough of all of this
much less ignore
Such beauty my hands ache
from all the notes
I have to write
amazed by what is beautiful
morning, noon and night

How sad I was to see
some of the rivers
riddled with the jetsum
of the new
The monster that is
modern man such ignorance
creating his pollution
as a stew

That soaks into the fabric
of this Country
the plastic bottles
tossed along the way
the ill advised
the circumcised
illiterate that spell complete disaster
come what may

Its evils leaching out
suggest the virgin
had best watch out
for theres a hellish threat
the food that swims within
our soup of pure unconsciousness
will poison those
who catch it in their net

We have to be aware
of all God gave us
Which lies underneath
our precious nose
Areas I saw
just north of Tigua
sickened me
for all along that road
the vomit of what is Western idolatory
Sorry Ecuador this
breaks the code

You must not let it despoil
your wondrous mountains
that stood the test of time
and now recoil
Imported filth
from America now litters
the mountain roads
im-balancing the soil

The Quichua
must not be swept up
in all of this
Their history
is something to preserve
The areas around the towns
they farm now
They must protect it
and create a new reserve