“Hissing” in the Yard

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted my the talented Marcie Atkins Herehttps://www.marcieatkins.com.

Salt City Verse still exists!

I have been away for a while, my life has been busy with many good things. In May my husband, Bart, and I were in San Francisco visiting our new grandson, Tommy, who is now already seven months old! We stayed through June.

He’s a miracle to us. He can turn over and grab things and hold on with his strong little hands. He laughs and eats. We are home now in New York State and his other grandparents are visiting him and we wait for the daily videos that tell us what they are up to on the West Coast.

But it’s nice to be home back to Upstate New York warm weather, and my books and friends. I hope to be writing more regularly. Also, inspired by many on Poetry Friday, I have been trying to paint with water colors and have found some YouTube videos to help me. It’s really fun!

As many do, I love to listen to the cicadas hiding out in the trees on warm summer evenings. The sound surrounded me this Wednesday evening.

Like in the Song “The Hissing of Summer Lawns” by Joni Mitchell, cicadas hiss, don’t they? You can find her song, one of my favorites, on YouTube. For some reason I had difficulty embedding the video here. Sorry.

Anyway, it was an incredibly loud the sound! I happened to be searching for something to inspire a poem and surrounded as I was, this tanka came to mind.

SUMMER EVENING IN UPSTATE NEW YORK 

Cicadas hissing.
My yard a colosseum of trees.
I could be in Rome;
but no amphitheater,
stars the only scheduled show.

©Janice Scully 2025

The Colosseum in Rome

The Hollywood Bowl, I suppose, could have come to mind as it is a huge space full of sound. But wherever I imagined myself, the cicadas, like many natural events, transported me.

I look forward to reading your poems this weekend. Thank you, Marcie, for hosting.

12 thoughts on ““Hissing” in the Yard”

  1. What joy! I’d love spending time with a grandchild like you have. What a lucky boy to have two sets of devoted Grandparents.
    A colliseum of trees. So, lovely…and so what I remember from my own home where I grew up. I love, love, love that stars are a show!

  3. Yay for your time with Tommy! And this poem is a delight. Our cicadas really raise a ruckus here…I’m always stunned when the season turns, and the world is suddenly quiet…thank you!

  4. Congratulations on the new grandson! There is nothing better. I have a new one, too. Sam is three weeks old and already 10 pounds! I was there (New Orleans) for the birth and their coming home, but now I am craving that little infant smell again. Videos are great, but the scent is what I miss. Your poem is just the right thing as I am hearing the rise and fall of cicada harmony as I write this. I loved “stars the only scheduled now.”

  5. I’m sorry you didn’t get to visit SF on a sunnier summer, but I’m sure the wee boy made up for the lack of celestial brightness by being his own sunbeam.

    Here’s to the lovely scheduled shows of the summer! Right now the loud sounds in my yard are towhees – they never cease.

    1. Thank you for reading, Tanita. I had trouble commenting on your post this week, but your poem were so spot on concerning the homeless. As usual this administration will try to make it appear as their new policies were meant to help, instead of withdrawing help and acting out their racism and hatred. Your poems draw attention to what needs to be seen.

  7. The connections we make are ever fascinating, Janice. Cicadas and coluseums is a prime example. Your tanka is alive with sight and sound. I look forward to the return of that familiar summer sound of the cicada orchestra.

  8. Ooh! “a colosseum of trees” — such a perfect metaphor! Cicadas have never sounded like hissing to me, but I’ll listen again tonight and I bet I’ll hear it!

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