by IRENE FOWLER, Contributor

“A swan looking at the world from a misty calm lake is like a creature looking at the world from space! All he sees is a large herd of people governed by the most stupid and most inadequate people.”

– Mehmet Murat Ildan, contemporary Turkish playwright, novelist and thinker

To read Irene’s new poem “Swans on Gentle Waterways” click:

Swans on Gentle Waterways

by Irene Fowler

Dainty, lovely, swans on gentle waterways; what effortless, ethereal, spellbinding beauty!
Certainly, an uncommon, absolute, sacred task and duty
In this fashion; to grace, adorn streams, canals, ponds and lakes
For God’s worthy honour, and humanity’s enriching, enduring sake.

**

Towering, baroque necks; of rare, naked elegance
Poetry in motion, bursting forth, into unspoken eloquence
Giving land rivals; over-the-top, flashy, flamboyant peacocks
A run for their money, in investor-stakes-blue-chip, beauty stocks.

**

What amazement, what finesse, what awe!
A jolt to jaded senses; plumed tokens, of swank and glory, unflawed
A balm to tired, world-weary minds and hearts
Brilliant symbols of creations’ varied, stellar visual arts.

**

Our spasmodic world in feral uproar, and ever-increasing fiery turmoil
Swans; serene royalty on gentle, calm waterways, temper the boil
Majestic, floating; daintiness, dignity, deportment; diminish and belie
Scary, inhumane sights of cruel, brutal, barbarity; ever-nigh.

**

Unruffled, cool, calm, collected, and spry
Poised, lithe, artful balletic dancers; pirouette gliding by
Smooth, shiny, sweet icing, atop of nature’s flowing, molten, cobalt cake
Seductive red-billed black swans, picture-perfect sirens; befitting any choice videotape.

**

Tchaikovsky’s iconic, epic Swan Lake, a ballet-operatic masterpiece
A tale for the ages; art imitating worldly egoism, and injurious fatal deceit
Comprising human betrayal, jealousy, dominance and heinous, rank power
An apt performance and musical score, matching humanity’s existential threats, and deadly hour.

© 2022 by Irene Fowler