There is so much irony in this post (in my world).

I only wish it were true for me.

You've been wonderful.  And your poetry is wonderful.

Bye,
cheryl

congrats Tom.

It's a  tricky assignment  to keep things simple without being banal but this piece manages it. The trope of the brook's babble as a discrete physical entity is particularly clever but also resonant.   

scott and xavier, thank you both very much for looking  & encouraging. tom

Was this:

like babble over
a brook

in anyway influenced or unintentionally influenced by Disney's Alice in Wonderland? In one of the songs in the movie, Alice sings:

"I could listen to a babbling brook and here a song, that I could understand"

Just curious because I've always loved the idea of a 'babbling brook' ever since I paid attention to the song

David, it's been a stock phrase all my life, certainly. Bob Hilliard used it in the lyrics to "In a World of my Own" in the 1951 Disney movie, and it is maybe best know in Tennyson's "The Brook" a hundred years before that. Who first used it? Don't know. Tom

Really? Tennyson? Hm.. that's good to know

Thanks Tom.

I think this is a really excellent poem. It reminds me of psalm 91 prayed every sunday night at complin all over the world in every language.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
and abides in the shade of the Almighty
says to the Lord: 'My refuge,
my stronghold, my God in whom I trust!'

It is he who will free you from the snare
of the fowler who seeks to destroy you;
he will conceal you with his pinions
and under his wings you will find refuge.

You will not fear the terror of the night
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the plague that prowls in the darkness
nor the scourge that lays waste at noon.

Enjoyed the piece add King David to the list

Mel

what a nice addition to the discussion, Mel. thank you. that image -- being sheltered by another being's wings -- always moves me. it's so ancient-sounding, or something, going back to the days of real belief that supernatural beings were winged. tom

charming pen to grace the Front Page
congratulations, Tom


Stella