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Doc Watson on the Cicada Concert
They seem to think they have something to say,
those locusts high in your circle of pines.
I wish they’d get tired of tuning and play.
I can’t tell if it’s murder or chivaree.
You know it’s mountain. Listen at the whine.
They seem to think they have something to say.
You think they’d hurry; they live about a day
to marry and leave a hollow shell behind.
I wish they’d get tired of tuning and play
“Shady Grove,” “Omie Wise,” “Gypsy Davy,”
anything with blue chords and a sober shine.
They seem to think they have something to say
About life’s sweet desperation. The way
They hover, praying whilst they die and dine.
I wish they’d get tired of tuning and play
a ghost song or ballad. If you ask me,
an old time melody’s not so hard to find.
They seem to think they have something to say.
I wish they’d get tired of tuning and play.
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R.T. Smith has lived in Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Washington, D.C. He has taught writing and literature at Washington and Lee, Auburn, and VMI. Smith has edited the journals Cold Mountain Review, Southern Humanities Review, and Shenandoah. His twenty books of poetry include Trespasser, Messenger, and Brightwood (all from LSU), and Outlaw Style (Arkansas); his selected poems, In the Night Orchard, is published by Texas Review Press. Smith’s newest book of poetry is Summoning Shades, the Adrienne Bond Prize Winner for 2019. He has received the Governor’s Award for the Arts in both Alabama and Virginia. A Parkinson’s patient, Smith lives on Timber Ridge in Rockbridge County, Virginia, with his wife, the novelist Sarah Kennedy, and their bluetick hound Gypsy. He can be contacted at rodsmith@wlu.edu. [Author photo by Sarah Kennedy.]
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Chivaree Wedding (artist unknown). The wedding night is one of the most sacred events of a marriage, but for some communities, it was a chance to bang pots and pans outside the newlyweds’ chamber. This mock serenade is sometimes spelled shivaree.
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Author: Terence Winch
