Image used by permission from Mike Benard’s Frog Call website
There’s something magical about the song of the spring peepers. When I hear them, I know that after a long winter, spring is arriving. Usually we first hear them when we’re driving on a chilly spring evening. We’ll still have the heat on in the car but we’ll roll the windows down. “There they are!” we’ll call as we hear them singing. (I even call out if I’m alone in the car. A joyous reflex–“Oh! Listen to the peepers!”) We speed by their conversations in our car, shivering in the chilly breeze, eavesdropping on a few highlights from a variety of vocal communities. You can’t help but smile when you hear the peepers.
Maine poet, Carl Little, also enjoys the wonders of spring peepers. This is the end of his poem Zones of Peeper. I love the image of those tiny frogs flinging their music about with such abandon and I know firsthand about the joy their song inspires.
Zones of Peeper, Carl Little
... not synthesized but a perfect
cacophony of the higher ranges, tiny frogs doing their spring thing, flinging music into dank milieu of pond edge and marsh, inspiring
a certain joy in our recap of the evening as if every fault could be forgiven when you consider the rest of the world wild and wet and flipping out.
One of my first graders also knows the value of specific language and the wonder of the peepers. Here is her recent first draft of a poem, prior to working with line breaks:
What a wonderful final line:” The peepers sing a lullaby to the fish.”
Spring peepers–hope, inspiration, and sheer poetry!
Pop over to Violet Nesdoly’s blog for more poetry today. Thanks for hosting Poetry Friday Roundup, Violet!
Nix the comfort zone 
I can see the moon sparkling on the water and hear “the peepers sing a lullaby to the fish.” Wonderful, post, teeming with life. 🙂
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“The peeps sing a lullaby to the fish.” What a sophisticated poem your student has composed. I too love the spring peepers and anxiously await their singing as a sign of warmer days are ahead. Great post, Molly!
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I had the joy of hearing those peepers on a trip to the Poconos with my students one spring, Molly. I don’t have the chance to hear them now, but love your poem, that final stanza especially. And the poem by a first grader – wow! Lovely post for spring!
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The spring peepers are out in force here, too, Molly – thanks for sharing! I love your student’s “lullaby” line, but I also really like “the moon makes sparkle on the water”…it may not be grammatical, but it’s quite lovely.
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Thank you for your spring serenade! I love the last line of Carl Little’s poem: “wet, wild and flipping out” and your first grader’s “lullaby to the fish” I think you have a fine poet in the making.
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Molly, I actually like the words leading up to your first grader student’s ending. Would you and your student considering offering a digital composition for my spring gallery, Spring’s Seeds? (The invitation is at http://beyondliteracylink.blogspot.com/2016/05/spring-gallery-invitation.html).
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Thanks for the invitation!
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Ohhh, these are awesome. “flinging music into dank milieu
of pond edge and marsh” — yes! And the “gleaming moon” and that lullaby — magical. Thank you for sharing these!
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Peepers are the best! Love the thought of frogs “lullabying” the fish. Thanks for sharing! =)
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Hooray for peepers! My younger son’s birthday is March 22, and we use that day as our “should hear the peepers by” day. They were late this year, but then started “flinging music into the milieu” with abandon. Your student’s poem is just wonderful. “Singing the fish a lullaby to the fish” is perfect. I love everything about this post, Molly!
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I love everything about this post. I have never lived in a place where I could mark time by peepers, so they are extra magical to me!
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Yes, that last line! I wonder if those little peepers have any clue how much joy they spread with their music-flinging. Thanks for sharing your joy with this post, Molly.
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Love all the singing peepers. They are thunderously loud around here at times! Beautiful poems.
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Oh, my! What a glorious poem your first grader has created! Love “the peepers sing a lullaby to the fish”.
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