Spring Peepers Peeping! An X-Rated Spring Song

A very very short video in which you can hear the wonderful song of spring nights--the mating song of the spring peepers (just outside my door):

Here is a link to the Wikipedia article on these critters: Spring Peepers

Here's what those little buggers look like:

Peeper Peeping--Looking for Love

This was found on a Google image search

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]

Spring Poem Set at Holden Arboretum in Kirtland, Ohio

Blood Root

--at Holden Arboretum, Kirtland, Ohio

in the spring rain,

amid the bluebells,

skunk cabbage, marsh marigold,

                                        blood root—

we break pita bread,

            understanding communion,

toast red wine,

watching geese gather on Blueberry Pond

I blurt out clumsy

            words of love

you give me a talisman

simple gift of

egg-shaped stone

made smooth

by the lake

flakes or rock flicker in the light,

crystals of ruby,

            of garnet,

surely of magic—

we are being wooed

            by life

bound by blood

            from root to crown

in the spring rain

            at Holden

            as everything

                        grows

                                    more

                                                beautiful

[Bob Coughlin, circa 1991]

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]

Poems for Very Early Spring

Song of the Turtle

“and the song of the turtle is heard throughout the land.” Song of Songs 2:12

winterwaiting
our spirits hibernating
like our brothers the bear
our sap slow and deep
our thoughts turned in

but what’s this?

a turtle coos victory over death
the earth quickens
sends out magic crocus
forsythia explode
ecstatic mirror of the sun
redbud promise
dogwood dance under the April moon

our sap is running
our love is blooming
our spirits dancing
to the turtle’s magic song

(Pippa Passes, Kentucky
February 1979)


February’s Dream

the snow lies thick upon the earth
the groundhog saw his shadow
the nights are long and bitter cold

but I have watched closely
and have seen some signs:

the morning concert of chirping birds
tree twigs turned a shade of red
silver maples’ pregnant buds

I have felt the quickening
first hope in this hard winter

I look for the crocus
and remember the birth
of a love

(Pippa Passes, Kentucky
February 1979)