Sound

Hear That? – NaPo 2025 Day Twenty-Six

For Saturday’s prompt, I was to write a sonnet with the format of a song. So, not a proper sonnet. I used Edgar Allan Poe’s “Sonnet – Silence” as an inspirational guide or bridge to mine. My problem was that “The Sound of Silence” song by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, and the more recent version by the band, Disturbed, would not stop playing in my head.

I used a ten-syllable line structure and the ABBA, CDDC, EFFE, GG rhyme structure that Poe used, and likewise, I did not break out separate stanzas.

Let the Beat Go On

It is at a sound where a life begins
a sound there is but it we do not see.
In death, that silence there can only be.
It is in still silence where all life ends.
We awake to songs that we all can hear,
the smells, the tastes, and the good sights of life,
and thunder unheard marks the life of strife.
Then, this silence must have its place, my dear.
We live in life, until we bow to death.
The sound of silence that no one’s disturbed
the sounds of silence one has never heard,
with one last sound, upon our dying breath.
You hear the clap of echoes in my heart
it is alone we play our final part.

Look both ways because hearing loss in one ear confuses directions.
Mind the gaps and take care of all your senses.

Midnight Rider – NaPo 2025 Day Twenty

My Easter egg fortune was to write a poem “informed by musical phrasing or melody.” I was to employ sound play (i.e., rhyme, meter, assonance, alliteration).

I wrote a parody with new lyrics (my poem) assigned to the Alman Brothers song “Midnight Rider.” I used different words and a silly topic that fit the original song’s rhythm and phrasing, as suggested with the prompt.

Late-night Walker

Shit, I gotta go, run to keep from peein’
And I’m told to keep them from seein’
Yeah, I’ve got to trot out one more
Yet I ain’t gunna let ya see me, no
Not gunna let ya see the midnight walker

And I don’t know where the hell I’m goin’
And the flow goes on forever
And I’ll run around one more time to go
Yet I ain’t gunna let ya see me, no
Not gunna let ya see the midnight walker

And I’ll not wet the pants I’m wearing
This old fart will not be sharing
Yeah, I’ve got to trot out one more night

Yet I ain’t gunna let ya see me, no
Not gunna let them catch the midnight walker

Yet I ain’t gunna let ya see me, no
Not gunna let them catch the midnight walker

Yet you ain’t gunna see me go, oh, no
Not gunna let them catch the midnight walker

Look both ways when the humor just won’t let go.
Mind the gaps that push the prompt. Make Weird Al proud.

Poetry: Sound

See it, good and bad, it’s there
but not silent.
Connections have sounds,
vibrations from nature
give pleasantries, threats, and
danger its voice.

Acoustic waves of sound,
perceived in brains
through resonance with timbre.
We hear the soft breezes and roaring
winds perceived as warning,
we hear gentle rains in nature’s
song, and we know the destruction
of the hard driving, relentless torrent.
Quieter or louder, we feel
the sonic texture before our
brains make sense of thunder
and lightning,
before the train passes,
before volcano eruptions
or earth quakes. We hear.

We welcome the pleasantry
of music to our ears, yet we
know the damage of unprotected
loudness, of sonic torture. We
see with our ears, we determine
location, we find friend or foe.

The gift of hearing stands out
not to be assumed as always
there. If no sound is heard,
it did not exist for us.

Without hearing,
our connection with nature is lost.
And maybe with love.

Listen to the rhythm, hear
and feel the music deep inside
your body—then dance.
Dance.

Hear the sounds but see
them mindfully taking mental
shapes—the arts—the senses—
never to be assumed,
never ignored, to be both
cherished and used. Sense all
of life: the sights, sounds,
the tastes and the smells.
Feel the touches of it all
and welcome it until only
the sound of silence
remains.
And a lover’s voice,

listen, hear, love that sound.
Listen, listen, listen; hush.

Look both ways and listen to the sounds.
Hear the drop of rain fall into the distant gap.

Poetry – NaPoWriMo: Euphonious Rain

The day 23 NaPoWriMo prompt encourages me to write a poem based in sound. The poem could incorporate a song lyric in some way. Euphonious means pleasing to the ear.

 

 

Euphonious Rain

Listen…I Listen with my whole body.
I feel the sounds before I hear them.
They enter my complete being,
I’m mesmerized, tranquilized by sound.
Sounds go deep into my muscles and bones, I feel
enticing beats dive into my groin and pound my chest,
I inhale the rhythm, the beats and the measures.

I feel the music deep within me. As I hear it – I become it.
Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain
as it taps above me. Hear the distant drum of thunder.
I am the rain, the tin roof, I release all thought.
My mindless feeling becomes alluring calm.
Feel the rumble and hear the night dance,
calling me into a sound-filled trance.

Into such a compelling sedative of sound
I let it enter, to hear the rain kiss me and touch me
deep within my being, it becomes my feeling,
my loving soul hears sounds of being alive.
To feel. To love. To be soothed. To hear and
Feel the rhythm of the falling rain calling to me.
Who’ll never stop the wondrous falling rain?

(Bill Reynolds 4/23/2018)

Look both ways on rainy days and mind the gaps and puddles.

Click link to National Poetry Writing Month