Best Knolls Poems
“and the birds twitter like whispering violins”
Quote by – Constance La France
Whiffs of fragrant breeze propagate tranquility
Kissing delicate roses, blushing amber beauty,
Rustling leaves of willows, as if tenor of music,
Swaying blades of grass shimmying moods of winds,
Sounding lyrics esoteric echoing voice of spring;
Humming softly to rhythms of dancing daffodils,
Quivering golden rays peeking through trees,
Burbling on rivers, rippling giggling tributaries,
Fluttering in glee, whispering to sunlit prairies,
Swinging tender revelry lilting in shadows,
Thrilling meadows budding through wintry throes,
Reviving weary realms, thriving withered knolls;
Grinning from mountains, atop lush valleys,
From shores of Pacific to shores of Atlantic,
Through the mighty Rockies, across Great Plains,
Lyrical, jubilant, exuding aura of happiness,
Enchanted by sweet ballad of robins’ daydreams
Strumming melodies of mellifluous spring.
May 16, 2023
Placed 2nd: Writing Challenge A quotes – Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Constance La France
Placed 8th: Brian Strand Premier Contest
Take me there, where the daffodils dance,
Preening with joy, flaunting nature’s art,
Where birds have assembled to watch
Sitting atop, prancing from tips of treetops,
Tuning lyrics of cherry blossom prompts,
Strumming rhythms of spring sonata
As crimson tulips, with lilies purple waltz,
To music of willows breezing with dawn
When sun breaks through haze of clouds;
Traversing over the mountains and valleys,
Over green prairies, burbling tributaries,
Besides garden of multicolored pansies,
Amid bell-shaped bluebells, red hyacinth,
Frolicking on meadows of wild blue Iris,
Rejoicing pink blossoms of magnolia trees,
Glistening verdant knolls, lush foothills.
Take me there, where rivers meet oceans,
Merging the passions of fiery emotions
Riding with tides of romantic notions
Vying allure of love, emblazoning now;
Love that sustained in summer storms,
Love that survived through wintry wrath,
Love our souls extol, in spring’s warmth;
When I decipher your esoteric response
Where verses tender stem from my heart,
As day retreats humming nightingale’s song,
And eve’s dreams blush on magenta arc;
Take me there, my dear, where you are,
On the apex of love, on cusp of romance.
Sculpting tinges periwinkle, eventide paints on arc of ruby skies,
Sunset dreams of freezing eve, longing warmth of moonrise;
As realms gelid waltz, where light-beams with shadows dance,
Shuddering boughs, quivering vistas, swaying barren expanse.
Prairies frozen glimmer, resplendence of pristine falling snow,
Where decaying colors of fall, in remnants of autumn glow,
When twinkling cosmic rivers, on tapestries of Milky-Way flow,
As frosty moonlight glistens knolls, of shivering terrains aglow.
Quietude dwells in grip of winter, where lakes and rivers froze,
Where beauty shines reflecting light, gleaming blustery woes,
Of shorter days, of time glazed, mellowed in golden sunshine,
Ceding to lingering nights, glinting in glamor of heavens divine.
Verdant prairies, lush foothills,
Yellow tulips, golden daffodils,
Waltzing with magnolia’s zeal
Flamboyant in spring’s appeal.
Thundering showers, mirthful bees,
Burbling rivers, roaring seas,
Birds chirping, roaming carefree,
Buoyant, reveling summer’s glee.
Autumn paints crimson themes
Dyeing leaves, charming dreams,
Swaying vistas, iridescent trees,
Whirling frolicking amber breeze.
Shuddering boughs, winds blow,
Scattering delicate falling snow,
Shivering knolls, terrains aglow,
Glistening twilight’s wintry glow.
When velvet night is soaked in dew
along bright rims of starlit thread,
prayers chime a tune in revue
away from hours of black and dread.
Along bright rims of starlit thread,
the fragrant winds blow chamomile,
away from hours of black and dread
to greet dawn’s flute with lambent feel.
The fragrant winds blow chamomile,
leaves draping the knolls in full hum,
to greet morn’s flute with lambent feel
as heart ripples while dusk succumbs.
Leaves draping the knolls in full hum
prayers chime a tune in revue,
as heart ripples while dusk succumbs
when velvet night is soaked in dew.
Gautami Phookan's Dabble in Poetry Forms
3/17/2014
We had a garden gnome named Griselda
the bane of our small bungalow
she was nasty and mean, at times quite obscene
the worst that you ever could know!
Her garden mate, Gregor, had feared her
but one day he mustered the nerve
with all of our backing, to send the girl packing
with cleverness, cunning and verve.
But she was vindictive by nature
and wouldn't let 'bygones' be gone
if it took all her years, she would stir up our fears
her plans were all plotted and drawn.
She waited 'til we'd quite forgotten
her villainous, vile, evil reign
then with fierce aggression, she took bold possession
of our lovely, dear, docile domain.
She poisoned the pansies and lilies
and shredded the sweet climbing vines
she disturbed my repose, when she broke the windows
with a shriek that sent chills up my spine.
She tore down my front porch swing
shattering the flowerpots and planters
mad wreckage in her wake, as she sought all to break
taking off to the back at a canter.
I squared off to defend my back garden
grabbed whatever I thought I might wield
at first, on my guard, as I entered the yard
I found she was hardly concealed...
And 'though she seemed alone in the garden
I soon found that I was mistaken
for, succinctly put- I was bound head to foot
and carried off, unhurt but shaken.
Griselda had built quite an army
it seems, in her time far away
for gremlins and trolls, from the caves to the knolls
were under her terrible sway.
They answered her orders directly
and smugly, she smiled and she smirked
a gleam in her eyes as she planned my demise
as her minions continued to work...
Heaving in stones from the quarry
they were piling them higher and higher
and my strength gave away as to my dismay
I saw they were building a pyre!
But Gregor'd escaped all their notice
as he'd hid 'neath the back garden shed
and despite his wee size, he would prove her demise
at his bellow, her company fled.
He used a cheap trick, an enchantment
that he bought from an old witch named Rue
and it seemed there were thousands (as far as the eye scanned)
of Gregors that came into view!
Her face was distorted with terror
and she promised that she'd stay away
and off like a blip- she jumped on a ship
and sailed to somewhere near Bombay.
Reflections on a Wall
From the valley floor
A stone arises,
Straight walls of polished blackness,
In between rolling, grassy knolls
Hidden in their cleft –
Arms open wide,
Welcoming pilgrims
Who in pilgrimage approach
It’s darkened face,
Burdened by their tears
Written on a page,
Wounded hearts, reopened,
In time and from far away
In air that hangs so somber,
Yet so full,
Like incense smoke,
Slowly lifting quiet sobs and farewell words
Into Heaven’s air
Until they meld
To final rest upon
The fragrant floral tributes,
As one clear voice of taps,
Bidding youthful souls
And mourning hearts be one again
Within the granite wellspring bubbling up
Like a flame - eternal as the spirit sighs
That rest within the stone -
Where life reflects back to the living
In a visage blank - a void -
Through the eyes of death
To see in the reflection
A mirror framed by silent tears
When hands held in mourning
Trace the outline of a signature,
Remembering the warmth shared
In first steps
Or love awakening,
Then reach out to touch the name
Etched into the stone
Reviving life,
Holding onto a youthful hand outstretched
For one brief moment rejoined with life -
Two souls touch -
Then pulled away into that space
That all mortal flesh fears
To bid adieu again
Across the finite portal into eternity.
Reflections on the Vietnam Memorial – Washington DC
They get off the bus
fresh from their houses
Crisp pink cheeks
Glossy hair
Shoes pristine
Bows in their hair
Smiles for their friends
Smell fresh
Look clean
The day plunks them into puddles
Rolls them around in dirt
Throws them off slides,
watches them twirl onto grassy knolls
Gives them sweet smells of reality
Tastes of earth and salt
We put them back onto buses
Not so bouncy
Not so proud
They are unrecognizable
Wiser now
Not as innocent
Or as pristine
It is a wonder their
families recognize them
rain showers the land
displays knolls of green grasses
tarsiers free park play
sun shimmers brilliance
upon brown mounds verdure lair
big chocolate queue
(c) Olive Eloisa
11:54am
June 19, 2014
***Chocolate Hills is one of the many natural wonders found in Bohol, Philippines. They are rich of minerals particularly that of marine limestone, fossils, corals etc. Home of wild life species including the smallest monkey in the world: the tarsier..:)
Sunbeams glistening,
through the giant red wood trees;
to warm grassy knolls…
Beneath a veneer of sapphire waves,
Rays of sunshine make fingers of light,
Ethereal, over crusty, pink coral forms.
Atolls that rise from stark white sand, create
Tunnels for twining eels and twinkling starfish
Hues of rainbow anemones mingle with
Tangerine flowers, resplendent along
Avenues of pelagic growth, draping over
Knolls of time worn stones, mirrored
In sunken remnants of marble ruins.
Now, at day's end an orange sunset
Glows with long beams to reveal a lost Atlantis.
Breathtaking
Contest Judged: 3/12/2016 12:00:00 AM
Sponsored by: John Hamilton
3rd. Place
(Re old poems)
By the moonlight, night's pearly softness glowed,
In their slumber deep, fog skirted knolls shoaled;
Through the winter cold, clipp'ty clop he rode.
Down the twisted alleys and to highroad,
Flew out in wind his fluttering hair gold;
By the moonlight, night's pearly softness glowed.
In the silence bare as the mist bellowed
O'er the turrets enshrouded in their fold;
Through the winter cold, clipp'ty clop he rode.
His shadow tossed on the water that flowed,
As galloped o'er the bridge, ' twixt moorlands old;
By the moonlight, night's pearly softness glowed.
Meet his bonnie lassie her chin furrowed
'neath her cherry lips in his hands to hold;
Through the winter cold, clipp'ty clop he rode.
Her dark eyes under green eaves that mellowed,
Where blushes of their love in whispers told
By the moonlight, night's pearly softness glowed;
Through the winter cold, clipp'ty clop he rode.
..
© gautami Phookan (24/5/2011) , All rights reserved?
1st Place 'August 2011, Poetry Soup Contest'
..
A flower long reposed
Amongst the lush green fields,
grassy knolls
I thought to have
but wanted first
and evening became
as dark the ash
amidst an ambers burn
As fate would have it.
A certain place
glass vases make,
in statuesque remembrance
Of days it stood
open and free
lavished by the sun
and honey bees..
How wild a thing
of beauty sings
in colors splashed
on fields of green
And make no brighter
in having then being..
Out of fields to remembrances
Of a once more precious thing
Hot tamales door to door
Knocking on doors along the sun baked street
Ten inch sub rotting on the dusty ground
Souls breaking under my feet
In pile of money the politician rolls
Malnourished beg for more
Poaching saints from grassy knolls
Black ants devour the ranch covered sub they’ve found
Sewer gasses emerging from fractured concrete
From the skull of a timber rattler crawls a paraplegic spider
Corn tortillas rolled on the bathroom floor
The heat hung on the spiders webs
tinsel from tree limbs
taunt between gargantuan boles
the golden hour lay garland on silken floss
with its intrepid arachnid host.
Dream weaver, fate Mother, Earth balancer
She dances.
A minuet brown bit suspending itself
between heaven and earth.
Across immense spans of grassy knolls
where the Cahokia sleep in the mounds of Kings.
She dances.
Dream weaver, fate Mother, Earth balancer
Centering the spinning Earth, the Cosmos…
harmonizing harp home of the Mother
caller of the four corners
She dances.