Seeing the Songs: A Poet’s Journey to the Shamans in Ecuador

A journey to Ecuador's rainforest, this memoir reflects upon the effects of environmental destruction in that nation while simultaneously recounting the author's personal experiences as a psychologist and poet. From traditional healing ceremonies performed by Andean and rain forest shamans to the knowledge gained from Shuar and Quecha Indians regarding the degrading impact of oil-company drilling and local forest cutting, this account shares the lessons learned from an inspiring group of people. Step by step, mile by mile, the author and his friends find their way up and over the mountains, across the stone-sung Amazon rivers and further into the jungle, to find a love they had forgotten, a world with which they could return.

Gary Margolis Ph.D, is Executive Director of College Mental Health Services Emeritus and Associate Professor of English and American Literatures (part-time) at Middlebury College. He was a Robert Frost and Arthur Vining Davis Fellow and has taught at the University of Tennessee, University of Vermont and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conferences. His third book, Fire in the Orchard was nominated for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. His poem, The Interview was featured on National Public Radio’s The Story. Boston’s Channel 5 interviewed him on the Middlebury campus reading his poem, Winning the Lunar Eclipse, after the 2004 World Series.
He is the recipient of the Saint Michaels College Clinical Psychology Department Award for Mental Health Practice in Vermont and the Wilton Covey Community Service Award from The Counseling Service of Addison County, Vermont, on whose board he now serves. He also was a volunteer firefighter in Cornwall, Vermont.
His fourth book of poems, Below the Falls is a book that responds to the loss of Middlebury student Nicholas Garza, our country’s wars, and the search for things that sustain us.