I know poets have long chirped its praises
[ I may even have done so myself ] but
this cricket down the backyard . this
one-trick pony who can produce only one note —
even crows, those most laconic of birds, can
produce two —- nags at me like a toothache;
it goes on and on like a cracked record, talking of which
I have some old vinyl 78’s of a band called
The crickets; there’s even a magazine
named after them; but my grandson has the right
idea: he buys them by the cup-load; there’s only
one thing crickets are good for, he says: feeding lizards!
Maybe that young lad has the answer for your problem. Or does he live in a different state? We have persistent creatures that call out at night sometimes, frogs. The pond and pool are well away from our bedroom, so their call doesn’t interfere with sleep.
I love having frogs, I just wish they’d stay in or around the pond, not the pool. The pool water and the pool filter are no good for frogs, but they insist sometimes on jumping in for a swim.
we are all creatures who lovew water; don’t know about crickets though
and yes I have written a few frog poems and an essay for which I was paid $500 !
$500 for one essay John, wow!
Hands off our crickets – love their sound. So evocative of the Aussie summer.
You know it’s summer when:
– the cricket’s on the radio and
– the crickets are chirping in the garden.
In Texas in the summer, it’s the cicadas, or the “Katy-did”s…kind of a soothing sound in the evening, especially. Like a small orchestra in the trees. Of course, when one drops down the back of your sundress, that’s another story!
LOL. Yes, you’re right Trevor; while researching the topic I found they stop chirping below \a certain temperature which is why I suppose you don’t hear them in winter
Substitute cicadas for crickets, then all you have to worry about is the ghost of Charles Bukowski!
M
__________
Marie Marshall
author/poet/editor
Scotland
http://mairibheag.com
http://kvennarad.wordpress.com
I’ve read quite a bit of Bukowski but was not aware of the cicada connection; also am wondering whether cicadas and crickets are the same thing like ‘autumn’ and ‘fall’ are
CB reckoned you could measure the pretentiousness of a poem by whether the poet had used the word ‘cicada’.
(I think crickets and cicadas are in fact different beasties.)
ahhh. that makes me feel good. yes it is a good way to measure pretentiousness; there are a lot of words like that: ‘heft’ comes to mind
Fly fishermen are also fond of crickets and grasshoppers for bait. Hemingway goes into some gruesome detail about how to slide one on a hook in his short story, Big Two Hearted River.
thanks. I’ll look this one up. I’m gradually getting around to reading all Hemingway’s big stories
Oh no!! Where I live the cacophony of 1000′s of crickets blend into a lullaby at night!
Besides, I think of them as a good luck charm!
it would be good to hear an orchestra of crickets as contrasted to one lovelorn soloist
Yes, “one is the loneliest number”
Cicadas and crickets are way different, especially if you are trying to get one loose from the back of your dress! Cicadas are like large grasshoppers, and we all know what a cricket looks like (and sounds like). I swear that we had the SAME cricket lost in the corner of my office in the library for nigh onto ten years.
I hope he found a lady love to accompany him and silence his ‘song’
Cicadas and crickets are way different. One is like a large grasshopper and the other is…a cricket.
One of our national poets Judith Wright wrote a number of well studied poems about cicadas; she lived in Queensland; I live in South Australia — where the weather since the cool change is too cool and wet for crickets — so perhaps cicadas are not common here
well my little guest has made his residence in my kitchen now. right now, its almost ten a.m. here but he is merrily singing and pleasing his admirer
you are right though that they sing just one single note- ha! Never noticed that before.
it’s the same note you hear when you put your computer on ‘hibernate’
I would like to throw a challenge to you as you are a poet whose work I admire: can you come up with a cricket poem? you have the material at hand
I would love to see the result