Nightingale Serenade (16 Lines)

Where Irony Has the Last Laugh

This poem was inspired by Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats. This is the passage that inspired this poem:

"I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,
Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,
But, in embalmèd darkness, guess each sweet
Wherewith the seasonable month endows"

entered in "The Daily Poem " 

Nightingale Serenade

Midnight illusions linger
Shadows trick and fade to gray
Nightingales sing to madness
Abandoned quick, light of day

Vanity acquires substance
in the eyes of one who waits
Fleeting times, indecision
Blinked and left it all too late

The bird is heard by no one
Song translucent in the wind
Nothing is gone to nothing
Irony's wings, final grin

Serenade down the ages
Generations rise and fall
From regency to modern
Haunt bird's lonely midnight call...


16 Lines