“Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul” - Plato
I am in Brisbane for work and the weather has been marvellous. The nights are soft, warm, balmy and the subtropical vegetation lush and beautifully green. Walking to the hotel tonight the air was perfumed with the aroma of some subtropical bloom and thinking to the picture stimulus of the latest Magpie Tales challenge it was easy to be quite literal and rhyming in my interpretation once again, influenced no doubt by the sweet, subtropical night. Henri Rousseau’s mysterious and beautiful painting is very evocative of music and its power, and his “Snake Charmer” charms also the viewer who feels drawn into the depths of the image.
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 strains absorb.
Snakes start to slither, slide,
And 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.
Loved the rhythm and music in those last four lines...
ReplyDeleteThe occasional longer lines broke the overall lilt of your poem, but some of the unusual rhymes made up for that to an extent. Thanks.:)
Your introduction is as lovely as the poem. I play the flute ... though not as hypnotically as your description.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jinksy, a few lilts were broken...but overall it was melodious and beautiful...a dreamy steamy string of words
ReplyDeletewell done....very atmospheric
loveddddd it
I loved the rhyming in this...so musical..
ReplyDeletewhile the instrument plays
Rhythm was wonderful minus a couple strays... yet you pulled each of us back with intent. Spicing it a bit I would say.
ReplyDeleteFabulous melodic nature.
Was it frangipani that seduced you? The perfume coiled through your pen into the poem - very lyrical.
ReplyDeleteI loved this poem, Nicholas. It complemented the image perfectly and I kept thinking of Ravel's "Afternoon of a Faun' while reading it!
ReplyDeleteLovely rhythm, beautiful words.
ReplyDeleteAnna :o]
This was lovely! Felt quite hypnotic in its rhythm. Thank you.
ReplyDeletevery profound.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful...my favorite lines:
ReplyDeleteMusic heals the deepest wound
Makes the air around perfumed.
I loved your take on this Magpie and was startled as I didn't give a thought until reading this, to the musician being a woman.
ReplyDeleteI hope you include this when your next book of poetry is published.