Best Bayou Poems

"There are those to whom place is unimportant,
But this place, where sea and fresh water meet,
Is important ---"
From "The Rose", by Theodore Roethke

Chilly late October;
thin morning fog banks
the roadside, cloaks
a trickling bayou...
in the thickets of dense trees,
the wispy tufts 
top man-high
goldenrod, Queen Anne's lace,
dried-out thistle...

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Alligator with fierce but captivating eyes sometimes red glare
  The Man with a title given by the High Priest of his Tribe 
  A man gifted at Birth for the World to be entertained by.
  Though much more then the Entertainer inside...

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black-water canals
where alligators patrol
and moccasins wait

where starved mosquitoes
invade in hoards at twilight
thirsty for fresh blood

at morning's first light   
dawn illuminates cypress
birds announce sunrise

perilous beauty
on display in the Wetlands
and all is at peace...

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Louisiana Bayou Spanish Moss

So pretty
Hanging from the cypress trees
It grows without showing its age
Never dying it controls the bayou
Hiding nest of the most beautiful birds
It has been home for countless generations
Silver grey by the light of day
It casts ghostly shadows by the light of the...

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Some folks believe it. Others do not. The legend told in the Bayou Cannot. The only witness who can swear that it's true, are the creatures who live in the bayou. The owl told the gator, the gator told the frog, about the horror filled...

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Wandering through the bayou,
wrapped in its eerie embrace.
Mysterious and strange--
a magical place.
Never seeming to change,
even as seasons come and go,
swampy waters ebb to and fro.

Like long-lost daughters,
gnarled courtly cypress trees
rise from black, murky waters.
Draped lovingly in Spanish moss,
swaying softly in the breeze.
Butterflies float across
as gentle...

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In my arms I will carry you
Feel no burden when I'm with you
Veins in my stems will follow you
I am your Tarlkin Bayou....

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Honeysuckle scenting the warm summer night
Getting drunk on sweet old apple wine
Crickets chirping their melancholy tune
Rocking on the porch beneath the wandering moon

Soothing sounds of the bayou flowing
Warm breeze from the south winds blowing
Whispering through the leaves calming
Winking fireflies light up the night glowing

The tinkling...

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With the song of the crickets and ballet of fireflies, 
the Louisiana moon has nestled in the sky. 
"Bonsoir, mon amour", she whispers so sweet
while watching from above as we drift off to sleep....

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Louisiana Cajuns 
Eatin'  hot cornbread,  
Chompin' aligator tail 
And suckin' crawfish heads.
Eatin' jambalaya 
And gumbo stew:
Gourmand, Sunday dinner,
On the old bayou....

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Nature poetry about the Louisiana bayou.




It's a good morning in the bayou,
as a breathtaking view of dawn's light breaking out.
Beaming rays of sun spilling all about.
The morning fog is gone and darkness washed away.
A spider spins a web of silver gleeming on display.
A mockingbird sings...

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He was from the Bayou
A southern boy through and through
And so young, but he had seen so much
He was the one they looked to,
While their corpses rotted on the snowy fields
He remained unscathed,
His beautiful portrait clean and intact
But he couldn’t say the same for his...

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On the bayou, molded brick streets
circle docks of wooden backbones stretched 
into black water, limbs sunk into seaweed 
now catchalls for rusty abandoned fish hooks from 
the "one that got away".
Old cement plateaus boast of jazz band days
when the water carried notes against the summer...

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The moon seems at rest
behind the tree branches
where sits a large owl
perched in silhouette
against its gentle glow.

An occasional splash
can be heard in the bayou
across the roadway
which glimmers like the stars
with moonlit serenity.

Nights warm summer blanket
settles in with nature providing
a clicking nocturnal chorus
reverencing the close 
of...

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Hair as long as the Mississippi River,
Eyes as dark as a bayou on a moonless night, 
kiss as sweet as a honeysuckle flower, 
and as dangerous as a rattlesnake bite.
She's a southern sinful delight.
Baptized by fire, 
she ain't like any other, 
her kind of lovin'...

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