BEAUTIFUL POEMS ABOUT BEAUTIFUL PLACES NOW

DAWN IN THE ANDES

’T IS dawn;—the distant Andes’ rocky spires,    

One after one, have caught the orient fires.    

Where the dun condor shoots his upward flight,    

His wings are touched with momentary light.    

 

Meantime, beneath the mountains’ glittering heads,

A boundless ocean of gray vapor spreads,    

That o’er the champaign, stretching far below,    

Moves now, in clustered masses, rising slow,    

Till all the living landscape is displayed    

In various pomp of color, light, and shade,

Hills, forests, rivers, lakes, and level plain    

Lessening in sunshine to the southern main.    

 

The llama’s fleece fumes with ascending dew;    

The gem-like humming-birds their toils renew;    

And there, by the wild river’s devious side,

The tall flamingo, in its crimson pride,    

Stalks on, in richest plumage bright arrayed,    

With snowy neck superb, and legs of lengthening shade.

-- William Lisle Bowles

KILAUEA

You volcano

As energy goes...

Smiling eyes of Pele's tears

Flame and fan the acrid air

Beneath the silver mantles edge

So near

Far... bellows below

Go forth

Between vented

Rock and crust

Take hands,

Push your shoulders up

 

To the sky

You Volcano

Do as you must

and erupt

You need to cry

 

Don't be interrupted

When your feeling tough

I can see you've had enough

You Volcano

Spit your curses high

 

Lava launch

into the sea

Raining light for every

Star at night to see

As they live or die

 

You Volcano

Make islands groan and grow

Stretch out into waves and sigh

Rise and shift your might

like an earthbound meteorite

 

 

That never dies

 

Only rest your head

You Volcano

on blackened lava bed

Stone tears stilled

never say good bye

--  Anne Therese

PARIS

Paris

A wonderful city

A place for lovers

Paris

A city to dream wild

Paris

In that river the boats are moving with lovers inside

Watching that beautiful sky above the river

And the moon from that beautiful sky

Is shining in

The river

 

Paris

A city that never sleeps

Paris

The romance is in the air

Paris

The lovers are feeling the love that are in the air

Paris

That smell of the roses the lovers can smell

Paris

This is the sign that spring is here

Paris

Spring is the most beautiful time of the year

Now that winter has finally gone to sleep

Paris

The lovers welcome spring with open arms

 

--  Aldo Kraas

DOVER BEACH

The sea is calm to-night,

The tide is full, the moon lies fair

Upon the straits; -- on the French coast the light

Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,

Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.

Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!

Only, from the long line of spray

Where the sea meets the moon-blanch'd land,

Listen! you hear the grating roar

Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,

At their return, up the high strand,

Begin, and cease, and then again begin,

With tremulous cadence slow, and bring

The eternal note of sadness in.

 

Sophocles long ago

Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought

Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow

Of human misery; we

Find also in the sound a thought,

Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The sea of faith

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd.

But now I only hear

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,

Retreating, to the breath

Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear

And naked shingles of the world.

 

Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! for the world which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night

-- Matthew Arnold

Read more about Beautiful Poetry in 10 Most Beautiful New Poetry Books Now, The Beautiful Nature of Poetry Now, Poetry as Food For Love & Love for Food is Beautiful Now and The Beautiful Art of Poetry Now.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact Daily Fix posts.

IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: by Winky. Torres del Paine.
2. Image: by Mariano Mantel. Corazón de la Montaña.
3. Image: by Zach Jackson. Lava.
4. Image: by D.W. Peterson, for National Park Service. Courtesy of Image Editor. Kilauea Volcano at Mauna Ulu.
5. Image: by Howard Ignatius. First Light Over Kilauea Caldera.
6. Image: by Daniel Gorenkin. Lava from Kilauea Volcano.
7. Image: by Jonathan. Champs-Élysées from Above.
8. Image: by Petter Palander. La Fayette Up.
9. Image: by Carfull...assignment: Mongolia. Dover Cliffs.
10. Image: by Archangel12. Dover Cliffs, South Foreland Lighthouse.
11. Image: by Alan L. Kilauea Lighthouse.
12. Image: by Chiguachi. Andes.
13. Image: by BN App - Download now!
14. Image: by Moyan Brenn. Paris.