Poetry Friday–Bells 🔔 🔔 🔔 & New Years Eve!

🔔 🔔 🔔 HAPPY POETRY FRIDAY! 🔔 🔔 🔔

🔔 🔔 HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE! 🔔 🔔

Tulle Bells, Coral Bells, Laurel Bells, WIP © 2021 Michelle Kogan, pen and ink.

Let’s ring out the old year and ring in the new with lots of bells, and whistles, noise-makers, and lots of poetry too. I’m piggybacking on the Poetry Sister’s Bell poem challenge for December. For more Bell poems look for them tagged with #PoetryPals. And thanks to all the Poetry Sisters, Tanita, Laura,
Mary Lee, Liz, Kelly, Sara, Tricia, and Andi.

Here’s my list poem to get you started…

HEART  & SOUL MUSIC…

Church bells
Search bells
Beautiful bells.
School bells
Tulle bells
Beautiful bells.
Coral bells
Laurel bells
Beautiful bells.
Tinker bells
Pinker bells
Beautiful bells.
Cat and dog bells
Epilogue bells,
Hand bells
Grand bells,
Sleigh bells
Ya-a-a-y bells,
Jingle bells
Tingle bells,
Cow bells
Wow bells,
Door bells
More bells,
Call bells
Hall bells,
Fairy bells
Prairie bells
Beautiful bells.
Sale bells
Whale bells,
New Year bells
Drawing near
Listen sweetly
With your ear,
Ring-a-ling-ling
Ding-a-ling-ching,
Chiming bells
Rhyming bells
Sing-in-time
Anytime
A-l-l–the-t-i-i-i-i-i-m-e bells!

Draft, © 2021 Michelle Kogan

More info about Japan’s tradition of ringing New Year Bells here.

“The Great Bell of Chion-In Temple, Kyoto, Japan. (4788295650).jpg Image Description from historic lecture booklet: “You are in the eastern outskirts of Kyoto; the city proper lies behind you are the west. The trees you see between the great beams of the bell tower belong to the temple-garden or park–all Japanese temples have gardens, large or small as the case may be, in which their various buildings are grouped. This bell-tower is separate from the other buildings. It was erected almost three hundred years ago (1613) for a Buddhist monastery up here on the eastern hill. The giant bell of bronze is 108 ft. high and weighs nearly 148,000 pounds; the priests ring it by striking it form the outside with a heavy beam of wood. The beam itself hangs from above by a rope and is pulled to one side, its end striking the great metal flower as it swings back.
There is something marvelous and almost indescribable about the sound that rings out through the air. It fills all the space wit hit sonorous vibrations, deep in tone as the bass of a big church organ and mellow as golden sunshine. Even the most indifferent tourist is impressed by it .The sound lingers, and lingers, and lingers in the air–if you stand quite near, say as near as those women by the railing, you can distinguish a low musical hum five minutes after the bell was struck.
The people you see here are Kyoto residents, Buddhist believers of the middle class. The men’s head-gear shows the unpicturesque effect of contact with European customs, but the women are absolutely Japanese from the glossy waves of their soft, dark hair to the clumsy wooden elogs strapped on their little feet. The big, flat loops in which their sashes (obi) are tied are rigidly prescribed by Japanese canons of elegant propriety.”

For our last Poetry Friday Roundup of 2021 be sure to drop in on Carol, at her blog Carol’s Corner, thanks for hosting the Roundup Carol!

Happy New Year!