Best Tinkling Poems
There’s an old river course with beginning and end,
now the river runs straight without this river bend,
where the water is still and the reeds do grow strong.
New life has taken over in a billabong.
The mat rush is spreading replacing the sedge,
and old fallen gum trees lean in from the edge
creating a haven in the shelter below
for smelt or gudgeon, and the common minnow.
There’s a ring on the water, so danger is nigh,
and life is now over for one caddis fly.
Dragonflies hover on their predator flight,
so mosquito and midges best keep out of sight.
There is many a song around a billabong
to break up the still with an assembly throng
from birds of the forest, and wading birds too,
so the billabong offer is there to pursue...
... for blue heron and egret, coot and the teal,
and for the banded rail that the bulrush conceal.
In the billabong shadowed by gum and ti-tree,
bellbirds are tinkling; wattlebirds disagree.
An oft-diving grebe keeps on searching for food
for the striped downy chicks of its latest brood,
and a hunting kingfisher waits keen for its prey
from a twig of a gum tree it frequents all day.
There is many a scent around a billabong,
filling the air with the perfume quite strong,
from black wattle and mint bush, or mistletoe
cascading from gum trees where only they grow.
Painted lady butterfly flit upon flowers,
and blue banded bees keep on working for hours
on lilies and orchids, heath, sweet appleberry
and clusters of flowers on a native cherry.
Ribbon weed, nardoo spread out in the shallow,
with buttercup, duckweed; an introduced mallow,
struggling for survival near the water line,
aiding coral pea that does lightly entwine.
The banks of a billabong are dangerous too
with predator snakes not so often in view,
but they are aware, that the growling grass frog
will climb from the water onto an old log.
But tigers and copperhead, red-bellied black
often lay in the sun on an overgrown track,
where the wombat or wallaby travel along
to graze on native grasses near the billabong.
So life still carries on around the billabong
where water looks stagnant, a bond is still strong
with a river now rushing it’s way to the sea,
past the billabong living, where the course used to be.
"a dagger of pain, a tear of grief"
Quote by _Constance La France
The grieving soul cannot let go
true and unpleasant reality
Fear of losing my mind
a bitter nectar that burns the lips
Shattered by disappointment and betrayal
sharp tinkling shards of glass
footprint paints bloody streaks
- brushes through the pain
Ceramic tears
under merciless screams
Weakness as jelly
trembling cold breath
one feels so insignificant
Night's disguise
strings for shadowy marionettes
- death of the full moon
16.05.2023
Anne-Lise Andresen
Copyright © All Rights Reserved
- A Quotes - Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Constance La France
- Poem of the Day : 17.05.2023 -
1st place in the contest
Seduce me in Black and White
You reach toward my face
and touch my lips
Tracing the slightly raised pink curve of them
gently - lightly - before
the urge to kiss me seizes the opportunity
Surrealistic sensations immortalize
as our lips seek and lock
Interchange of strange, new emotions
flow as our tongues entwine
Sun having a siesta under his canopy of clouds sends
sombre golden light slanting through the old colonial blinds
Enough for me to see ~
I want to see ~
Caressing fingers don’t stop as kisses linger
moving in seductive circular motion
Circling - tracing - moulding
twin peaks to unashamed pertness
Tantalising ripples course my body
Like the soft waving flutter of butterflies winged kisses
creating sensuous ripple upon ripple
Of pure undulating pulsating
I want to see ~
Fingers urgently move now to my navel
circling, tracing, tinkling
Like a pianist on his keys
of black and white
Are they really only two colours?
Why then do they lilt a rainbow of colours to my ears?
On my fevered skin caressing fingers script my Rhapsody
The slow whirring beat of the ancient ceiling fan
picks up a harmonic note
of a solitary flute
Wanting to add to the sultry scene
It lends its own mysterious charm
A tantalising urge to arch
I want to feel ~
Impatient now for them to move further
Fiery Desire entices curious fingers to touch
dew that cumulates dusk to dawn on my awakening rose
Exciting, enticing emotions
The aromatic rapture floats me to you
a tortuously slow feeling to satiate
Propels bodies to engage
I want to feel ~ I want to feel ~ I want to feel you
A frog croaks discordantly outdoors
Snapping me out of my reverie
Startling me out of my romantic fantasy
Eyes fall back on monochrome words of my book
I long to dwell in this erotic moment
Weaving the music into a mesmerising crescendo
However
The old wooden blades of the ceiling fan
resume back to the rhythmic measured clickity clack
The spell now broken
I reach for my phone to call my lover
He awaits my call …
Video Clip - Yanni - Romantic piano
a gentle breeze
tinkling wind chimes
her voice
reflected
within her eyes
the sky
sunlight gleams
upon the stream
her flowing hair
rose petals
blushing
cheeks and lips
slithering
down her neck
peach juice and kisses
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
POTD ~ 5th December 2016
O glorious Autumn of melancholic
Gold -
All abouts the brightly lit
Woodlands
Your wonderful artistry behold!
Tinted bronzes,
Darting between awkward firs
Of sobering Evergreen,
Loiter inside mauve havens
Splashed with palest yellows -
And dappled with many differing
Limes
Throughout this variegated Theme;
A myriad of rustling contentment,
Sweetest contrasting charms,
Complimentary...
Softly whispering leafy hues...
Hushed...most elegantly serene.
Bursting into the swelling copses
And invading between the
Dwindling fields:
Auburn, primrose and lilac views -
Abundant with seasons
Celebrations
That so magnificently infuse!
Glowering in simmering sunset,
And spluttering in misty dawn:
Afire with all the orbs oozing
Revelry,
That upon barkened furniture,
To thus gild - and resplendently
Adorn!
Now is the time
That dry tinkling leaves
Give musical resonance
To a breath exhaled from
A breeze...
Fanning the boughs roaring flames
That each out-stretched branch
does eagerly seize,
Fired from the eternal torch
That immortal Ceridwen tirelessly
Sought;
Whilst I hang upon evocative
Memories
That this arresting moment briefly
Caught.
Blazing with a consummate passion
Ignited from a poets grappling
Thoughts:
The Muses to this joyous splendour
Were summarily summoned
And brought;
But as elusive as the enchanting
Notes
From the intoxicating pipes of
Evasive Pan...
So as elusive the words of the
Unwritten verse
That so evade this singular man.
So burn! You gaily painted colours,
Within abandoned restrain,
Your dizzying carousel
A whirling kaleidoscope
Upon an artists ever changing frame.
Soft ochres and dappled browns
Mixed with vivid orange and crimson
Red...
Applied lavishly from the palette
Of Artemis
Over which the vibrant pastes
Are thinly spread.
A riot of pastel shades
All exploding forth -
With the raging power of a
Supernova
Of an immense, dazzling force!
All hail to the almighty:
From the devout to the Divine...
And all hail to the Grandeur
And Majesty -
Of his awe-inspiring design!
grandma pours me tea
we talk late into the night
moon covered by clouds
paint peels from windows
as grandpa rocks in his chair
cigar smoke rises
zephyr wind blowing
shells and wood dance in the breeze
I can hear music
wind chimes tinkling
on a sultry summer night
childhood memories
8/28/18
A whistling wheezing hamlet, whispering and emanating, tunes euphonic,
In a remote isolated valley, far-flung from the abode of the temporal,
Warbling quietly to whistle scads of tranquil cryptic songs;
Lying spasmodic, a sparsely inhabited mellifluous hamlet, Kongthong!
Not to hyperbole, a singing utopia, uncustomary to the core!
Where innate and mellow are the naive dwellers' rustic tinkling timbres!
A rover's riddle, the natives' pride, a unique heritage, their blissful strains!
Ringing with an ancient tradition of tune-giving in honour of the root ancestress,
Customary to the matrilineal surviving unknown folk of the thorp!
The chirping region's dispositions and practices outlandish, vague and obscure,
Primitive and bizarre, mere to merge with nature's absolute accord!
Voices buzzing in whistles, murmuring and chattering, lilting,
Arcane, pervading the virgin thicket of the sacred thorpe!
To entangle, passerby and wanderers in dream like metaphors!
Those magical murmurs in quirky tunes, mingling the breeze of the secluded hamlet, intoning own tinkles!
Blessed are the tuning terrain's offsprings, nameless!
Rared by ditties, hailed sacred by the clan's conviction!
Outlying, by the uninhabited enchanting wilderness of East Khasi Hills,
Sleeping quietly the untrodden, nature's lulling lullaby, the whistling Kongthong!
Yell! Immaculate and serene, the saga of their undeciphered airs, mumbling in exquisite ethos!
Inimitable and gripping to eye, how the denizens of the tribe,
Are crooning to dub and call each other by indigenous intonations!
Pitching and whooshing, to tune their melodic identities unique!
Whew! The picturesque terrain is tweeting, whooping, and whizzing!
Heaven! Bless anomalous nature's absolute pamphlet,
The ringing Kongthong, God's own whistling hamlet!
(Inspired by dance steps from a belly dancing class I once took!)
She rolls her pretty head from side to side
while, raised above her face, are slim curved arms.
Brief pose. . . . She’s readied to expose her charms.
Wrists twist, and serpentine, arms downward glide.
Her undulating silk-draped hips move round.
She churns them slowly, flashing bright green eyes;
then minces “Camel Walk” to tantalize
as ankle bracelets make a tinkling sound.
With bills in hand, men beckon with a glance.
She shimmies, jingling toward them in dim light;
then spins and thrusts her pelvis right, left, right.
Seduction of delight - her belly dance.
For Barbara Gorelick's "May I Have This Dance?" Contest
She said, if I correctly recall,
That, for her, a sustaining love is an
Absolute prerequisite for what
Would be a total commitment of the
Coupling bodies...and all that
Constitutes the essential parts of the
Eternal Soul;
And I not so assuredly competent
In this - the practice of such a higher
Art!
Adding, some little time later, that
Being so chained, in what she described
As an unfortunate consequence of a
Most regrettable thrall,
To a domineering Harlequin who,
When mindlessly exercising the upper
Whip hand, had neither modest restraint
Or any amount of unimpassioned
Self-control,
Was, in fact, just a flagrant excuse
For a base lust;
Of course this was not to be confused
With the laudable and gallant actions
Conceived within the inner workings
Of a steadfast and more openly honest
Heart.
And was I convinced that I was indeed
Sincere in all my avowed pledges?
And did I truly understand that all her
Troubled life she had tirelessly
Searched for one such as I purported
To, somehow, seemingly be?
How I instantly can bring to mind
Those obscure and doubting mutterings...
Still carrying upon an ill wind I
Should not wonder;
I think of them like the songs of the
Naiads: what woefully remaining
Sounding endlessly above the glassy
Tinkling of a mystical lakeside's
Stiffened and shuffling Sedges;
You a modern-day Danae, infant Perseus
Clutched to your swollen breast, your
Little box, in all its abject
Loneliness, now set adrift upon some
Desolate and open sea.
What turned out, in the end, to be a
Pointless charade. Perhaps; but that
Which, despite shortening periods, whilst
Enduring felt almost timeless.
Then of course this shared guilt...
That will, shamefully I fear,
Forever bind us.
My coffee, my house,
cinnamon and hint of clove
in a full bodied french roast...
acrid, bitter, pungent deliciousness
wafts thought the air
before even the eyes are open
the buzz of conversation over
the tinkling of spoons stirring
the clanking of cup on saucer
the shooshing of steamy cream
into cappuccino
a lush, rich aroma,
with the feeling of rightness
around the edges
like a cozy blanket of comfort
wrapping around your shoulders
Sipping in silence,
watching the sunrise,
simple serenity to start the day.
©6/18/12
The lightly touching tinkling bells,
Shimm'ring, babbling, laughing in the breeze,
The ever-merry tapping bells,
Who now has these?
Low, slow, iron bells;
Deep, still, lead bells.
Bells. Bells. Bells.
All gladly-sounding glowing golden-bells,
Lilting, lighter, brighter yellow bells,
Mightier-yellow even whiter bells!
Ivory-keyed I-concerto-bells!
Striding proudly in the breeze
I have these!
The bells of thoughts serenely dear,
Planning, looking, finding---here!
The hand that reaches for the loved bell's face,
Then touches, almost, the perfect place.
Low, slow, iron bells;
Deep, still, lead bells;
Bells, bells, bells.
Bells. Bells. Bells.
All terrible-sad mad rebellious bells,
Brazed, swinging-fast Goliath bells,
Stronger, harder-hearted mountain bells,
Caught! Smelted! Recast!
Now joyous-sounding royal-loyal-bells,
Silver-lovely radiant treasure-bells,
Sure-as-morning's darling pleasure-bells,
Sledging! steady! ready! wedding -bells! Bells!
All happy in the breeze,
We have these!
High, soft, snapdragon bells;
Kissed, whisp'ring, thoughful body-bells,
Bells.....bells.....bells.
We’d gather on the old wooden porch
gramps would sit in his rocking chair
with wisps of smoke rising from his cigar
I’d snuggle up to gran
on the faded old swing seat
We’d sip lemon tea
and chat late into the night
catching up on the news since I’d last visited
I always loved to hear
the music of the wind chimes tinkling
as they danced on the warm summer breeze
My grandparents passed many years ago
but I can still hear that same music
as the wind chimes now swing on my porch
I hold in my heart
precious memories of times past
Wind chimes Contest
Sponsored by Edward Ibeh
FICTION POEM FOR CONTEST
8/28/18
The evening is set out before me
on the threshold of night,
the hazy lights teeming
and glazed, webby-cold ----
bright with a white-haired curiosity;
What good honesty can bring,
observing reckonings and episodes
of spring stretching into the sky,
and many a mile on they who walk by,
Of faces rosy-red with frosty wiles;
wild eyes of winter,
(who stop for awhile)
They are gone, these frozen months,
the long cold sleep....
the chilled sheets,
heat with rebirth, melted snow neath
grins with spring;
glazed pines, tinkling water drains....
the sun soothes nearer its smile
The forests are roaring with song on the wind,
of spring,
And all things warm with renewal,
spring,
stretching into the sheet of the sky....
FOREVER LOVE
Margie........my one and only........Margie
love's music echoes timeless
spring fed it flows forever
Pop would get up early, make Mom's hand-mixed
favorite black and green tea, and when ready,
he walked down the hallway tinkling her teacup
with a spoon, gently waking her.
When he came home each day
he'd whistle the tune......
"Margie......how I love you ......"
alerting her that he was near.
On occasion, his mood would be jubilant
upon arriving home,
whistling......
"Sweet.....Georgia.....Brown!"
just like his favorite basketball team,
The 'Harlem Globetrotters'
Mom was Dad's whole world,
I could hear his expectant excitement
in the tone of his remarkable whistling
whenever I pushed him down the hallway
in his wheelchair, knowing his one and only
lifelong love would soon be in sight.
He couldn't mix and brew her favorite tea
anymore, or wake her with her tinkling teacup,
but until the end, he could still whistle!
.....and man!
could he whistle!
The winter Queen has arrived
Silent and soft and slow and divine
Slowly thru icy breath she whispers
As her silver garments open wide
Miracles appear swirling free
As tiny angels dancing above
Softly drifting to the ground
On the wall and rooftops
Window ledges and branches bare
Tiny crystal flowers bloom
As she spreads her blanket around
Tinkling and glittering they enter
Frigid human lonely hearts
And like wild butterflies
The warmth flutter again
As each flake a beautiful dream weave
In the white tapestry of life
08/11/12
By Tahera Mannan