Best Stream Poems
The old stream doesn’t burble
like it used to in Spring’s past -
rambunctious in youth wild it ran
racing the sun and chasing the moon
splashing leaping and tumbling
over, down and around rocks in its shallow channel -
giving it rollicking laughter
The old stream doesn’t play with sunlight
like it used to in Summer’s past -
when unending yellow dahlia days gentled its flow
allowing for reflections and explorations around each bend
and for savoring saffron skies and plum-shaded shadows
that seemingly stretched on forever -
giving it invincibility
Autumn saw a change in the old stream
under a herald of goldenrod fireworks
waters waned becoming tired and tamed
its banks and shoaly bed littered with Fall’s golds and reds;
a once lilting voice grew quieter
as nocturnal rhythms trespassed towards winter’s solstice
and under the cover of darkness
a cool moon stole the stream’s slow dance with the sun -
giving it vulnerability
The old stream remembered not the goldenrod days
nor the purpose of its earthly path -
Winter charged in on his frosty horse robust with rime
and laid his icy hands upon the sleepy stream -
draining its dreams of a pulse beneath a frozen facade..
but from below the stilled surface a silver current flowed free
… giving the stream eternity.
Susan Ashley
April 12, 1019
~ First Place ~
Premiere Contest: 2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 23
Sponsor: Mark Toney
*Rime: frost formed on cold objects by the rapid freezing of water vapor in clouds or fog.*
Categories:
stream, age, appreciation, life, seasons,
Form:
Free verse
Oh lovely lady of the poetic stream
Such beautiful verses we have seen
Your flowers more vibrant than heavens tone
Your mountains more majestic than ever known
Your pen full ways are filled with grace
As you take us to a wondrous place
When you dip inside your wishing well
We are transfixed from your magic spell
Oh Lovely lady of the shimmering stream
Enchant us now so we may dream
A volcanic resonance within your soul
Gushes out versus that make us whole
I stand yonder as I look and glean
Toward the lovely lady of the poetic stream.
March.03.2016 ^WW^
Categories:
stream, analogy, beautiful, friendship, inspiration,
Form:
Sonnet
Oh tell me where they are, the ones I miss
The ones I long to touch with ardent kiss
Where are the ones my heart is longing for
I ache within for those whom I adore
Where are the ones that I have loved and lost
the ones I tried to keep at painful cost
Where are the ones who hold a piece of me
All silent now, a part of history
Alone, I sit while thoughts of them now plead
to come to life, to breathe, and to be freed
As I succumb to time who's gentle, kind
I see them all again; sweet trick of mind
The ones who loved me not, now love again
my mind brings mem'ries bright of where and when
and once again the sweetened words I taste
of friends and loved ones gone without a trace
I see my mother praying while in bed
She lives once more, not lying with the dead
I hear her whisper words of truth and grace
My trembling fingers trace her Angel face*
And then my daughter ‘s hand is safe in mine
She’s back at home and everything is fine
We spend the night in laughter and delight
I need not worry where she is tonight*
My loved ones are around me, not abroad
The ache that pains my heart is healed by God
For though I miss the ones my heart holds dear
This stream of mem'ries brings each loved one near
*My mother's name was Angel. She passed away on March 19, 2000. She had Multiple Sclerosis which kept her from kneeling beside her bed for her prayers. She would sit up in bed and pray for each one of her children.
*My daughter is studying in Hungary, and I miss her terribly
Eileen Manassian
Categories:
stream, missing you,
Form:
Iambic Pentameter
~
Impatient, are the waters, that ripple in the stream
Taking no notice of one all alone
They continue to flow, to swirl, twist and turn
They pay no attention, think nothing of me
As I sit here to ponder, to write and compose
~
Deep in the stones, lie dark secret longings
Old stories of those, who sat on the bank
Like me, finding hallows to gather and think
I'm called by the breezes to capture the prose
Inspired by nature, words flow from creation
Written to cast, like leaves on the water
~
The cattails that rattle, the cinnamon fern
The willows that lean, each twig bends to listen
Before me, were others who sat in the sun
On the mossy green bank of the waters that know...
Watching each ripple from precipice high
With stories, of heartache, and reasons to cry
~
Cavorting blue ribbons, hiding the answers
Splashing and laughing, no time for my questions
I lean my hand over, to calm the swift partings
Cold water runs swiftly, and it stays in command
It runs through my fingers, like life on a journey
Secrets it carries, and onward it goes…
Taking no notice of one all alone
~
________________________________________________________________
Categories:
stream, introspection, nature
Form:
Free verse
I lived in a beautiful valley, beside a quiet stream
It was a place I escaped to when I needed to dream
surrounded by the tallest mountains in the world,
so I believed when I had been an innocent little girl
Pure until he walked down from the mountain high
He came to me without a word, we stood eye to eye
His only gesture was to reach out and take my hand
with that touch, the flames in my heart were fanned.
At last, 'hello,' was but a whisper from his sensuous lips.
He brought my hand to his mouth, kissed my finger tips
and then he said that he'd watched me for many a year,
grow from a child to a woman and I had nothing to fear.
I chose to believe every word that he breathed forth.
I took his other hand in mine and we headed North.
He asked me to journey with him and share in his life
He promised to take care of me as his friend and wife
He said with me by his side, everything we would share
and that for years he'd longed to have me as his lady fair.
It didn't matter where we went or even where we slept
but after a few years, what mattered was that I wept.
I cried because his promises all proved to be untrue.
I cried because I knew there was nothing I could do.
I walked away from him and headed South on my own.
Once again I dreamed in the valley where I lived alone.
The nights were cold as I lay down on the valley floor
there was no more warmth from the man I had adored.
When I slept I always saw the mountains fade away,
not the man who came to me beside the stream that day.
My ears heard a rustling, perhaps it was just the wind
but a shadow fell over me and the sunlight was dimmed.
"Hello," was all he said before he knelt beside me there
Once again he asked if life with him would I like to share.
How long we sat and stared at each other, eye to eye,
I'd not hazard to guess, nay, I'd not even care to try.
I asked, "What have you done in the years since I left?"
He said he'd almost died from a heart sad and bereft.
Four years it had been between 'hello' and 'goodbye.'
Years spent in my valley, where I thought I would die.
He stood before me now, this mountain of a man.
I rose up to my knees and then I held out my hand.
There is a kind of love one can only capture in a dream,
But some can be revived beside quiet waters of a stream.
Categories:
stream, forgiveness, love,
Form:
Sonnet
The old rusty gate CREAKS open,
I hear the blowing wind WHOOSH and HOWL,
blazing autumn leaves waltz MURMURING
stories from a forgotten past,
The lonely owl HOOTS, SHRIEKS TU-WHIT TU-WHOO,
rain falls DRIP-drop…PITTER-PATTER
A door shuts BANG somewhere
making me SHUDDER!
The desolate staircase is dusty and empty -
lamenting for footsteps of CHATTERING, GIGGLING
children playing hide-and-seek,
dry leaves CRUMBLE under my feet in the orchard
which once smelt ambrosial!
The place WHISPERS an exuberant childhood…
my heart FLUTTERS to recollect
the HUMMING music of the quaint hamlet…
bees BUZZING around the colourful flowers,
butterflies flirting with roses and dahlias,
birds CHIRPING melodious tunes which
serenade to far-away RIPPLING streams.
The swing has stopped, birdsongs are gone!
The rusty gate SQUEAKS open..
July 3, 2021
"Onomatopoeia" Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Emile Pinet
23 Onomatopoeia words (In Bold) have been used.
22 Lines
THIRD PLACE
Categories:
stream, childhood, house, loss, memory,
Form:
Free verse
You first held my hand in rapture sown, soft-honed land.
Time rose our teen romantic throes through joy-spiced air.
When our lips met with eager flair by an aloof stream's stare,
we lost focus under starry skies devoted to our sighs.
Time hasn't frayed my feelings from our love's ballet in twilight rays ...
I often wonder if you also remember and hold this time as tender.
Categories:
stream, cute love, desire, dream,
Form:
Rhyme
A rill meanders by my shady tree
and vanishes into the morning mist.
Who guides it on its journey to the sea
as stream joins stream, with gravity's assist?
Free will or destiny? Unanswered still.
What guides a river's course? Deep mystery.
The fates, or God, or chance, or human will?
This plagues the brightest minds of history.
Time is that river's steady downhill flow -
to go uphill is science fiction's dream
but that is a direction one can't go,
for time allows no traveling upstream.
What will determine how this river flows?
I know not, but I know of One who knows.
written 23 Sep 2020
Categories:
stream, destiny, river,
Form:
Sonnet
The stream in calm vale murmurs as it flows
through the sunlit verdant forest strip bright,
splashes on the contours of landscape lows
in silver cascades like swan flock in flight.
It meanders on fern-draped landscape site,
opalescent pearls its swirling surge sprays,
gliding through the dazzle of dusk sunrays.
Full moon sky drizzles tinsel dust in spree,
as from water whispering wind lifts haze,
the splendor of pristine nature charms me.
______________
October 22, 2022
Syllable count : 10 per line (HMS)
Rhyme checked with rhymezone.com
Contest : Dizain Poetry Contest
Theme : Stream
Sponsored by : Sotto Poet
Categories:
stream, analogy, nature, river,
Form:
Dizain
Spending three full days and two nights at sea
Is surely the best vacation for me
Conch chowder dinner the night before
At dawn adieu to the Key West shore
Round-trip journey to Dry Tortugas
Swordfish are known to put up a fuss
It could take four hours just to reel in
Set the reel on drag and watch it spin
Some folks say it’s the thrill of the catch
There’s so much fun in the sparring match
A battle between woman and fish
Three-hundred-pound prey, no better dish
The best reward comes at dinnertime
Succulent fare in sauce made of lime
Some can’t relate and I understand
But fresh-caught fish is better than canned
From the Gulf Stream straight to the table
This adventure requires no fable
Working out with weights ‘fore I embark
Knowing swordfish are no easy mark
Snorkeling too at Tortuga reef
Expectations are beyond belief
My idea of a perfect vacation is slated for May 30 to June 1. Entry for Carol
Brown’s “It’s Time for a Vacation” contest.
Categories:
stream, adventure, seavacation,
Form:
Couplet
a divine stream flows
rippling an aura of love....
sacred dip awaits
© kashinath karmakar (1st July 2011)
==========================
Placement: 2nd ;(July 2011)
Contest:Precept:Nature's Haiku (Photo based)
Sponsor:John Freeman
Categories:
stream, inspirational, nature
Form:
Haiku
Nestled in a mountain town,
Enclosed in downs of clouds,
Flows a dancing stream
Spiraling, bouncing,
Swaying along with the mountain breeze
Winding through trees, rocks and bushes,
Supporting vibrant foliage,
She voyages through forest
Jabbering, hopping
Swaying along with the mountain breeze
Dazzling in the sun
Shining thousands of sparkling diamonds
She springs over rocks and pebbles
Bubbling, splashing,
Swaying along with the mountain breeze
Attending to the whispers of the sky
And wheezing winds
She travels catching pearls of raindrops
Clinking, twirling
Swaying along with the mountain breeze
Entertaining and providing to peoples
And friends from the wild
She drifts ceaselessly with vitality
Spiraling, bouncing,
Swaying along with the mountain breeze
Categories:
stream, nature, river,
Form:
Personification
Replenished with rain, it rushes on,
Its brown water pours and spills
Like vinegar from the pickle bottle,
Tumbling over, bubbling through
The jagged jumble of rocks,
Those early plants pushed aside to let it pass,
Its running melody ringing clear,
Competing with the robin’s call,
The stream pushes on, its cheerful song
Belies the chill beneath,
As it strives to outrun Winter,
While the fragile sun sighs
‘Too soon, too soon’.
Categories:
stream, march, mountains, nature, river,
Form:
Free verse
Poetry stream of thoughts and words
caress my mind with visions, soft
and bring me to the songs of birds;
to mountain tops, to heaven's loft.
Please keep on rolling never stop,
poetry stream of thoughts and words,
and bathe my mind with fertile crop
of images that roam like herds.
Your flow is blessed with seasoned herbs
for me, a poet to define;
poetry stream of thoughts and words,
my heart and soul with you, combine.
Along your banks are treasures found
as visions flow 'round rocky curbs.
Here rhyme and metaphors abound;
poetry stream of thoughts and words.
Categories:
stream, imagery, poetry,
Form:
Quatern
Born, far aloft on highest peak,
of glaze caressed by golden glow,
through ancient sculpted rock she seeks
fair journey forth to glens below.
Cool innocence; a virgin stream
unfurls her charm at leisured pace;
a bracken shaded lover’s dream
meanders on with gentle grace.
O’er highland slopes she carves her name
and tastes the salt of weathered stone,
warm rippled sun depicts a flame;
a yearning ne'er to drift alone.
With dreams of zest her ethos sways,
high spirits disenthrone her calm;
away from purity she strays
toward the thrill of ocean’s charm.
Exuberance invites a ride
upon his wild and briny sea,
midst turbulence and swelling tide
she yields to anonymity.
Categories:
stream, nature
Form:
Quatrain