Amazonia

Tender emerald realm ... lungs of the earth to span a continent, wide - jade labyrinth of wonder and mystery. Like a serpent, its watery namesake winds and slithers, the strength of its back, untested, colors and creatures of limitless kind and contingency, peoples yet untouched by civilization, and drowned in an ocean of foliage ... its bounding abyss barely plumbed, extraordinary species, as uncounted as counted, and a tangle so snarled ... that it hisses only at the grand Atlantic, its mighty meandering coaxed to current and tide. Beast of brute and beauty, begotten of the Andes and the heavens, high - a world begs your precious breath and bold, boundless breadth ... dangerous and delicate, wondrous and wild, untamed ... tender. ~ 1st Place ~ in the "Wild Country" Poetry Contest, Julia Ward, Judge & Sponsor. ~ Honorable Mention ~ in the "Strand Pick A, Any Theme, Any Form" Poetry Contest, Brian Strand, Judge & Sponsor.