Couple of poems anticipating April

Early April Hallelujah Chorus

The spring peepers singing their hearts out last night

Right outside my window, in the wetlands, near the creek,

Chirping their love

Seeking out their Romeos and Juliets

Reckless frog lovers

One green inch of high C

Chanting to the drumbeat

Pulsing in their peeper souls

The hum in the blood,

The need for a mate

Louder than the call for food or sleep

Or anything else --

Not so different from

Human peepers of spring!

 [Robert M. Coughlin April 2002]

Midnight at Blue River

--for LRS, Floyd County, Kentucky

New moon late march night

a trillion stars

above Blue River dance

to tune of spring peepers,

hoot owls, hounds

chasing through the hills—

Our eyes perceive light

older than dinosaurs

traveling across millennia.

This ancient light encounters us,

blesses the long journey.

We walk quiet, serene,

hand-in-hand in the dark

hollow

                are suddenly

grateful for our little

lives for our little

light and love.

May it pour across

time and space

touch another

Consciousness.
                                  [Bob Coughlin]