Evenings Orchestration

SUMMER’S SYMPHONY

Listen to the sounds of night
Such matchless orchestration
Hear those tiny creatures
Employ their syncopation

Birds sing bedtime vespers
Mosquitoes hum along
Beetles click their castanets
As night breaks into song

Crickets tune their fiddles
As bullfrogs start to drum
Cicadas add a shrill whir
And there is more to come

Dragonflies rattle crisp wings
As they dart out of reach
A watching owl gives forth
With high vibrato screech

An old oak tree creaks a bit
Adding a note or two
Its leaves tap, tap a window
Making their band debut

An earlier rain contributes
A gentle rhythmic sound
As drops of rain plink, plink, plink
From leaves onto the ground

As evening starts its tune-up
Sounds blend in harmony
And the orchestration that is heard
Is Summer’s Symphony

4/20/86 Phyllis DeWitt VanVleck

5’th … PAW (in Pa) 1990

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A still night Haiku

HAIKU

In the night’s stillness

a cricket’s strident love call

carries on the breeze

3/18/90 Phyllis VanVleck

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The End of the Day – Night’s Blessing

 NIGHT’S BLESSING

 

 

At the end of the day

            When the sun’s last ray

                        Is just a sliver of light

Darkness starts to descend

            To signal day’s end

                        And the earth nods into night

 

Day’s fragrance is rent

            By night’s earthly scent

                        Daylight beds down with a yawn

As dusk takes away

            The heat of the day

                        The curtain of night is drawn

 

Heaven’s jewels wink down

            From their heavenly crown

                        The landscape’s kissed by the moon

While the frogs and bugs

            On their lily pad rugs

                        Compose a melodious tune

 

Fireflies wing by

            As the breeze gives a sigh

                        Birds settle down for the night

While an owl in a tree

            Winks flirtatiously

                        Then spreads his wings in flight

 

A cloud in the sky

            Drifts lazily by

                        And then it shadows the moon

That strange mournful plea

            Near a lakeside tree

                        Is just the call of a loon

 

Like strings of wee beads

            On webs in the weeds

                        Dew jewels silken threads

Flowers here and there

            Bow crowns as in prayer

                        Nodding their beautiful heads

  

As night settles down

            She puts on her gown

                        To cloak earth’s sleepy breast

For it’s part of God’s plan

            And a blessing to man

                        That we’re given this time of rest

 

6/23/72        Phyllis DeWitt VanVleck

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