Poets and Storytellers United this week asks us to “pick a picture and write about it”. What has inspired me is a painting by Henri Rousseau, the French naïf artist, called “The Snake Charmer”. It is done in his signature style and is a wonderful mysterious image, all about the power of music.
And since it’s all about music, you can hear this poem set to music in my “Otidorchestre” sites on YouTube, Spotify, Amazon, Deezer, Flo, Pandora, etc.
Nocturne
In the stillness of the night
To the silvern moon’s delight
Sweetly does the flute resound
Spilling music all around.
Ebon skin and hair that shimmers
Shiny glance that softly glimmers,
Sinuous and sweet’s the air
Luring beasts from out their lair.
Music makes the jungle tame
Calms and yet ignites a flame.
Music soothes the savage beast
Rouses passions in the priest.
Neath the moon’s resplendent orb
Flowers music’s strains absorb.
Snakes start to slither, slide,
Right up to the flautist glide.
She charms serpent, beast and bird
With her music not her word;
Now the snakes around her creep
Up they climb, roused from sleep.
Music heals the deepest wound
Makes the air around perfumed.
Music calls to arms and strife,
Yet assassins drop their knife.
And each gentle leaf unfurls,
Flower twines and softly curls;
As the music upwards floats
Rhythm, melody, sweet notes.
In the stillness of the night
To the silvern moon’s delight
Sweetly does the flute resound
Spilling music all around.
