Orinoco, Miracle of Water into Black Gold: An Ecological Rictameter Poem

Water:

Snaking river,

Where pink dolphins cavort;

And crocodiles play hide-and-seek;

From deep sandstone reservoirs oil updips

To make deposits of tar sands,

Orinoco Oil Belt,

Venezuelan

black gold.

The rictameter can be considered a modern invention of the 20^th century. It exists because of the innovative genius of Jason D. Wilkins and Richard W. Lunsford Jr. It serves as a popular choice for poetic expression because of its clear structure and of its open-ended nature.

In terms of structure, the rictameter calls for nine lines of poetic expression. Its first and last lines contain just 2 syllables each. The second and eighth lines have 4 syllables each. The third and seventh lines must have 6 syllables each. The fourth and sixth lines need 8 syllables each. The fifth line stands alone in having no companion line of 10 syllables. The completed rictameter poem therefore will have the following line-by-line syllabic look:

• First line: 2 syllables

• Second line: 4 syllables

• Third line: 6 syllables

• Fourth line: 8 syllables

• Fifth line: 10 syllables

• Sixth line: 8 syllables

• Seventh line: 6 syllables

• Eighth line: 4 syllables

• Ninth line: 2 syllables.

The rictameter poem therefore can be divided into 3 parts. The first part consists of a total of 20 syllables predictably divided over the poem’s beginning 4 lines. The second part involves just one line expressed in 10 syllables. The third part is made up 20 syllables precisely split up over the poem’s ending 4 lines. The rictameter poem therefore totals 50 syllables precisely presented in 9 lines.

Structure and its lack both characterize the rictameter poem. Structure is evidenced in the poem’s precise line and syllable counts. Its lack may be witnessed in the absence of any specific requirements as to grammatical construction, rhyme scheme or thematic observance regarding individual lines or the poem as a whole.

The two cousins added the rictameter to the list of acceptable poetic forms for weekly get-togethers in which they shared and critiqued each other’s poetry. The two fellow poets considered their meetings an important part of the Brotherhood of the Amarantos Mystery. They created both the organizational and the poetic structures for their weekly meets. But they credited as the source of their organizational endeavors the film “Dead Poets Society.”

Australian film director Peter Lindsay Weir (born August 21, 1944) indeed impressed audiences worldwide with his movie about the “Dead Poets Society.” The film presented fictional characters in situations which were based upon actual experiences. It received four critical Oscar nominations for best actor in a leading role (Robin McLaurin Williams, born July 21, 1951), best director, best original screenplay, and best picture. Three out of four awards went elsewhere, to the actor Daniel Day-Lewis (born April 29, 1957) in “My Left Foot”; the director Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946) of “Born on the Fourth of July”; and the picture “Driving Miss Daisy.” But “Dead Poets Society” won the Oscar at the 62^nd Academy Awards of March 26, 1990 for best original screenplay, by Thomas H. Schulman (born October 20, 1950).

Nashville-born screenwriter Tom Schulman drew upon his own experiences as a teenager attending prep school in Tennessee. He numbered among the all-male students at the Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville. The academy offered instruction from the seventh to the twelfth grades. One of the academy’s instructors, Samuel F. Pickering Jr. (born September 30, 1941), an English teacher who went on to become an English professor at University of Connecticut-Storrs, served as the model for the character played by Robin Williams in the film.

The Orinoco is the major river in the northern South American coastal country of Venezuela. The river's name remains as a cultural contribution of its early pre-European inhabitants. It possibly translates literally as “a place to paddle” and loosely as “a navigable place.”

Specifically, the word Orinoco comes from the languages of the Guarano or Otomac tribes of ancient Latin America. The Guarano moved from the Antilles archipelago of the southern Caribbean Sea into Venezuela; and what is now Guyana, where their language is called warau. The Otomac moved from parts unknown into the Apure/Orinoco River regions of central-southern Venezuela.

The Orinoco fascinates not only because of its cultural associations but also due to the quest for its source and for its rich resources and wildlife. For example, the river originates along Venezuela's southern border with Brazil. Over 450 years in fact separate the first known documented exploration of the river's mouth and its source.

The Genoa-born admiral Christopher Columbus (c. October 31, 1451-May 20, 1506) is the first European known to visit the river's mouth. The Genoan explorer recorded the meeting of river and ocean on August 1, 1498. The visit took place during the Genoan navigator's third voyage to the New World, 1498 to 1500.

A joint team of French and Venezuelan explorers is the first known successful scientific expedition to the river's source. The expedition numbered among its 200 original members the following participants:

• Major Franz Antonio Rísquez Iribarren (June 12, 1917-October 8, 1969);
• Dr. Pablo José Auduze Díaz (August 21, 1902-November 20, 1989);
• Dr. Luis Manuel Carbonell Parra (born December 29, 1924);
• Captain Félix Cardona Puig (February 3, 1903-December 5, 1982);
• Geologist Jean Marc Sellier de Civrieux (December 23, 1919-April 17, 2003);
• Botanist León Camille Marius Croizat (July 16, 1894-November 30, 1982);
• Museo de Ciencias Naturales ("Museum of Natural Sciences") director Josep María Cruxent (January 16, 1911-February 23, 2005);
• Lepidopterist René Lichy (1896-April 6, 1981).

Expedition members traced the river back until reaching its birthplace about 3,435 feet (1,047 meters) above sea level on December 27, 1951.

In 1962, General Rísquez reminisced about the expedition in "Donde nace el Orinoco" (literally "Where the Orinoco is born"). Two years earlier, in 1960, Dr. Auduze revealed in "Shailili-ko" that the Orinoco has a second source at an elevation of 3,753 feet (1,144 meters) and 10 miles (16 kilometers) to the north of the above-mentioned source . Forty-six years later, on September 1, 2006, Dr. Carbonell spoke about the expedition as part of a lecture series held at La Casa de Estudio de la Historia de Venezuela "Lorenzo A. Mendoza Quintero" ("The House of Study of the History of Venezuela") in Caracas. At the time, he was President of La Academia de Ciencias Físicas, Matemáticas y Naturales de Venezuela ("The Academy of Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences of Venezuela").

The name given to the river's birthplace is the Cerro Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, within the Parima mountain range of southeastern Venezuela, where it is called Sierra Parima; and northwestern Brazil, where it is called Cerro Parima. The Portuguese word cerro and the Spanish sierra mean "hill" in English. The proper name memorializes Carlos Román Delgado Chalbaud Gómez (January 20, 1909-November 13, 1950). The Venezuelan military officer served as President from November 24, 1948 until his assassination. He was descended from French ancestors on his father's side and studied engineering in Paris, France.

From its source, the Orinoco flows some 1,330 miles (2,140 kilometers) to its Atlantic Ocean mouth. Not far from the mouth, river travelers understand the meaning of Orinoco Oil Belt. But well beforehand, they witness such unusual wildlife as Orinoco’s pink river dolphins (Inia geoffrensis humboldtiana) and crocodiles (Crocodilus intermedius).

Spanish language speakers call Orinoco pink river dolphins by names. Among the most endearing is delfín rosado delOrinoco. The phrase may be translated literally as "pink dolphin of the Orinoco."

Pink is the color of adult pink river dolphins, of which there are 4 species worldwide. Pinks pinken stronger in males than females. Actual color patterns tend to splash attractive, extensive pink over gray bodies.

At known maximums of 6-1/2 feet (1.98 meters) for males and 8-1/4 feet (2.51 meters) for females, pink river dolphins are the largest freshwater cetaceans (aquatic mammals). They exhibit strong attachment to their birth/youth waters for the following:

· Access to large lakes and wide river channels within forested areas when water levels lower;

· Availability of lowland river shelters alongside floodplains, forests and marshes when water levels rise;

· Diets rich in freshwater crabs, fish, piranha, shrimp and turtles.

For example, Orinoco pink river dolphins refuse such exit opportunities as the Casiquiare natural canal to the Río Negro and therefore the Río Amazonas (Amazon River).

But dolphin habitats are declining in quality and decreasing in area. Dolphins face human enthusiasm for developing undeveloped land and water resources and transportation routes. They also must escape hunters of catfish bait and poachers of fetishistic pink river dolphin eyeballs and male reproductive organs.

Captivity therefore cannot be the sole survival option. Orinoco pink river dolphins usually regret life away from home despite devoted, diligent care. Their average lifespan in captivity tends to hover just short of 3 years.

The even more endangered, critically threatened Orinoco crocodile can be designated by one of two phrases in Spanish. Both phrases define the crocodile's natural habitat. One designation is cocodrilo del Orinoco ("crocodile of the Orinoco"). The other is cocodrilo llanero ("crocodile of the plains," "plains crocodile").

At a known maximum length of 16-1/2 feet (5 meters), Orinoco crocodiles are the largest of American crocodiles. They may be found in dwindling numbers in the Meta and Orinoco River Basins of Colombia and Venezuela. They suffer from habitat degradation and loss through damming as well as nutrient, sediment, toxic and water pollution from the activities by area agro-industry and mining. Additionally, hunters and poachers threaten the Orinoco crocodile's existence due to the lucrative sale of hides and the profitable trade in live young.

These highly endangered Venezuelan native crocodiles attach to their birth/youth waters. Their diet consists enthusiastically of fish and desperately of capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris). Orinococrocodiles most likely total no more than 250 to 1,000+ individuals in the wild. In captivity as residents of nature centers, the largest numbers will be found in the famed Aquarium of Dallas, Texas.

To develop or not to develop can be seen as the unifying question regarding the Orinoco environs in which crocodiles, dolphins and tar sands abound. Specifically, the Orinoco Oil Belt (la faja petrolífera del Orinoco) describes about 21,357 square miles (55,313.82 square kilometers) of land bordering Orinoco passage through 4 states: Anzoátegui, Delta Amacuro, Guárico, and Monaga. Its name indicates deposits variously called bituminous, extra heavy crude, oil or tar sands.

Tar sands are natural mixes of bitumen, clay, sand, and water. Bitumen colors, looks and smells tar-like. Tar sands occur worldwide, but especially in Canada and Venezuela.

Tar sand exploitation divides developmentalists and environmentalists. Specifically, bitumen must be heated or watered to flow. Colder Canada requires heat and steam, and warmer Venezuela just steam injection. But any processing of bitumen will result in greenhouse gas releases.

The United States Geological Survey estimates 500+ billion barrels as the quantity of Belt oil recoverable through current industrial/technological standards. Development should affect about 4,476 square miles (11,592.79 square kilometers) of the Belt. Oil- and wildlife-rich Venezuela thereby will nudge Saudi Arabia into second place among countries with the world’s greatest oil reserves.

"Orinoco Flow" by Irish musician Enya (born May 17, 1961) actually was named in homage to Orinoco Studios, the independent label which was founded in the mid-1980s and which garnered worldwide success with the release of Watermark, the singer's second album. The grandeur and beauty of the Orinoco River nevertheless are conveyed in the lyrics by Roma Shane Ryan as well as the music by Enya. The first line in fact references the mighty river:

"Let me sail, let me sail, let the Orinoco flow."

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the Internet.

Enya. Watermark. London: Orinoco Studios, 1988.

USGS. An Estimate of Recoverable Heavy Oil Resources of the Orinoco Oil Belt, Venezuela. Fact Sheet 3028: October 2009. http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2009/3028/pdf/FS09-3028.pdf

Copyright Friday, January 27, 2012 by Derdriu