A Summer Night Concert Under A Full Moon

(The video is as much about the audio. The insect songs, along with a surprising visitor on July's full moon night, aka the Buck Moon. Have a listen...)

________

"A Summer Night Concert"

As evening gives way

cicada songs start to fade 

their numerous species rule the day

but now, 

A concert for the night is well underway

Some call it a cacophony, but I hear an orchestra with a choir that's on fire up in the trees

Tree Crickets en masse, sing with a trill so loud, so shrill

I'm sitting still

Then Maestro instructs,  turn down the lights 

Katydids start  their rhythmic chatter

"Katy did, Katy didn't, 

"Katy did, Katy didn't "

Count the syllables with me

a robust repeater

in a 3-4 meter 

Some sort of  insect Gregorian Chant

All things awaken, perchance to enchant 

A loud  zzzzzzeeeeee begins pulsing  in bursts

I'm  unsure of the species, but his family sings  by rubbing tiny wings

 His orchestral section might be in strings

They all hold the heat of the day

stored up, charged up, solarized, energized

Amplified sounds that pierce the night

It's electric!

Maestro stands still in amazement

A bird-like titter echoes from a distant tree

But as the sound moves closer,

 a metallic jitter? a tambourine shiver?

Can an insect quiver?

Excitingly exotic!

Crickets in the grass, though faintly, play a tune remembered from a basement room

As midnight approaches, every voice has softened.

Maestro lowers his baton, the last movement on this holy summer night.  

 Twas not a dream, though soon it will be

_____

I stretch out a yawn as I slowly rise from my seat, resigned to go back inside.

As my head hits the bed,  I'm quickly falling into a dream, recalling,

A child's window always open on warm summer nights.

Cricket songs were a soundtrack for my brother's best stories.

Carols in the night, soothing, consoling,

carried us, cradled us, to the  threshold of sleep

The same songs that colored ancient ancestral dreams...

___

The Owl you heard is a Barred Owl, not to be confused with a Barn Owl. He acquired his name because of the dark and light bars/stripes patterns 

May it be 

we always take time for the wonders of the natural world...