Dead on Arrival, Alive on Departure - DWR
Reflections on a subaqua somnambulation, Amazonas, Braziliam interior, June 1991.

Equator's sun beats merciless upon the verdant floodplain,
slowly drawing lifeblood up through root and branch
to skyward transpiration in molecular ascension.

The heavens groan, their accumulated load unbearable and Xango's hammer drops,
unleashing floods of tears in terrifying torrents.

But all's not lost,
and in the storm's chaotic mechanism some elevated moisture is borne upon the trades,
riding high and far above the waves til landfall on some dark and distant shore.

Again it's driven upwards,
not by fiery tropics' sun but by the land itself,
swathe ancient peaks in grey ethereal garlands and caress Eryri's crest.

Yet clouds,
like starcrossed lovers,
find letting go such sorrow
after life's time spent just barely holding on.

Then go to ground in mists and drizzles,
roll softly down to feed the hungry crops,
its drips reluctantly released and seeking out the dark
and deep recesses whence to hide,
to rest and then recover after such a fall from grace.

There slowly percolate through ancient lime and time,
and run a secret course through cuprous lodes and long forgotten workings,
condense alternate charges before resurging upward
back onto mortal plane,
dispensing saintly blessings,
imparting grace and gratitude in cold forgiving flow.

Reich called it "orgone" - and was jailed for his "madness", his books all burned.
The stuff of dreams and nightmares, it breathed life into the A bomb, its Pará-physique properties unlike other waters of this world.

Yet still they come to bathe and seek numinous mercy - but first you must believe.

 

© pjgwright 2003

 

DWR III - 1991, in Amazonas, a small group of tourists play in the hot afternoon after a sweaty trek through a few miles of the jungle around the camp. Someone suggests swimming to an island across the flooded forest lagoon on the edge of the Rio Negro, and although I am not a strong swimmer I'm up for it, it's only about thirty or forty yards. Halfway across though and I'm struggling to keep up. I start to panic and try to return but by then I'm struggling to stay on the surface. Once, twice, three times I go under, thinking This is not good. Within moments I am sinking slowly to the bottom, lungs half filled with murky black water as I try to stay calm, relax and float back up and catch one last breath. The helplessness of this moment still haunts my bathtub daydreams and nighttime slumbers. Outstretched toes touch the sandy bed and instinctively start walking, one step and then another, arms aloft and eyes half closed. Then sunlight glints above me and as I stagger out onto the bank the locals advise me to thank the saints for my life. In Candomblé one must pay homage to Exú, whose domain lies between the Orixás and this mortal plane. My forfeit was to be a small piece of my soul, left to walk the course of the igarapé and down the Amazon delta, across the vast Atlantic bed, its depths and mountain ranges, unto the Dee and home. I felt that long imaginary walk was over when I dreamed the missing details - flying in flooded treetops with the bota and its leading me back to shore, hearing the softly spoken call of native people on the riverbank during the several minutes I had been missing and then their laughter at my frightful reappearance. Who says it never rains?

Px.

 

Special thanks to:

Mark Wells at Deeside College for initial script development and encouragement to explore the original concept; Yale College, Wrexham for digital transfer of second unit scene.

 

Written, performed, directed and produced by PJ Guimarães Wright, a.k.a. Craig Iôan Llwyd.

 

Samples from:

 

"Over and Out"

Mercury Rev (Goddess On A Highway)

Gustav Mahler (Symphony #10, 'Langam' 5th movement)

Leo Adeo (Hawaian War Chant)

Eddie Cochran (Somethin' Else)

M J Cole (Be Sincere)

Gasp / laughter by unknown passenger.

 

"Branch Line"

Sylvester (I Need You)

 

LMNTL

'Let's Stay Together' by Al Green. Voices by The Disappearing Girls.

 

"Bridge of Sighs"

Macy Gray (Still)

'We love you' sampled and assembled in Cool Edit from children's PC games, additional dialogue sampled from "Women's Hour" and "Today", BBC Radio 4, 1998.

 

"Everleast"

Toni Braxton (Not Man Enough For Me)

plus additional percussion and dialogue as above.

 

 

Contact doaaodwr @ hotmail for details of how and where to purchase the source material, CD / LP catalogue numbers etc. All rights of the original recording artists reserved. This work pre-dates and is in no way connected with the BBC TV production 'Earthride'.

 

© pjgwright MMIII in all other elements