Sitting By A River Poem by Loke Kok yee
Sitting By A River
The water flows sullenly by for the rain had long gone
Now muddy banks are exposed, baked hard where the sun had shone
Trees flourishing by the marge can no longer hide their roots
A branch cascading down overshadows a pair of coots
An oppressive stillness pervades in the sweltering heat
Even the noisy macaques did not with their rude calls greet
Then skimming the treetops, a hornbill in laborious flight
Broke the unusual silence and ‘twas a refreshing sight
Way across on the far side a boat works against the flow
Stops awhile for traps to check or a casting net to throw
And high above a raptor soared scouring with piercing eyes
While down below those who are prey hides or quietly lies
An otter swaggered on his way along the waterline
Unaware of the caiman patiently waiting to dine
The splashes far from the edge tells of fishes moving by
Suddenly a snake appeared eyeing a frog on the sly
Then oil discharged from upstream came dancing past in a streak
The ripples rainbow-hued says the river's future is bleak
The beauty (and danger) of the river and its grandeur are set to dance in the mind of the reader, until the finishing lines, where mans hand once again threatens to destroy
In this poem, you have come out with flying colours as a landscape artist and shown nature as it is observed while sitting by a river after a heavy downpour. But at the same time you have also expressed your deep concern for global problems like pollution of water. Thanks, My Friend. Look at a fine expression- An oppressive stillness pervades in the sweltering heat.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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7/27/2025 5:11:01 PM # 1.0.0
marge? MARGE***: noun \ˈmärj archaic : margin - - - - - - - - - - - - - or my cousin Margaret's nickname. : ========================== BUT, i don't usually speak archaic! mentioning monkeys and hornbills brings back memories of a trip to a national park in Thailand. but i'll take U.S, scenery and wildlife any day. cheaper! Stops awhile for traps to check or a casting net to throw........ i like how you arranged this line to make a rhyme with the preceding line (i thought preceeding; i was apparently wrong) . wow! you went from a wildlife tour to a foreboding of man-made doom. of course maybe it was a natural leak of oil from the Earth. that IS where oil was formed and comes from: underground. right? hmmm. maybe man-made doom is more likely. ====================================== this reminds me of most of my poems in that it has rhyming of successive lines and the lines are fairly long. i didn't even seem to notice at first that the lines were rhyming, perhaps because the lines are relatively long. a few times i have broken my long lines into two pieces each. the rhyming words are thereby separated by a line NOT ending in a rhyming word, BUT i think this would give natural points for readers to pause and catch a quick breath, especially since you do not use commas. i might break lines up in more of my poems, but i usually write them in a notebook so i often make the lines about as long as the paper's lines allow and then it just gets typed the same way! :) keep feeding those predators! bri :)