R.T. Smith: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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 [email protected].      [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.

Comments

[Denise Duhamel]

Brilliant villanelle! Love this poem.

[Simon Schuchat]

Great villanelle!

[Grace Cavalieri]

an extended HAIKU for sure: meaning and nature.

[Martin Stannard]

Excellent!

[Bill Nevins]

"I can’t tell if it’s murder or chivaree./You know it’s mountain. Listen at the whine.'
Wow! Doc and Merle are loving this poem and setting it to music already, wherever they are!
I hope you will share this one with Ray Wylie Hubbard too, he just might set it to song!
Brilliant!

[Gerald Fleming]

Anyone who's lived close to cicadas sure identifies with this! Really enjoyed it.

[David Lehman]

Very arty, R. T.

[Clarinda Harriss]

Talk about speaking my language. The subject (I’m obsessed with cicadas. In Bmore they sing in f sharp. The form. I love it. It’s a fave of mine. The music. Of course cicadas sing the blues.

[Clarinda]

Oh and yeah Doc Watson. “Oh Dearh…”. And the way Avila Elle has so much in common with ballad merger and 12 bar blues.

[Don Berger]

A magical conversion, a high wire act. Who’da thunk we could make the jump from Doc Watson to this other supreme vibration?

[Robert Wrigley]

Bingo! Bravo!

[Janet Hamill]

A villanelle it is. Good job!!!!

[Dr. Earle Hitchner]

Ah, sweet villanelle, mighty meter of mood and music along with sublime rhyme from the minds of masters. Here R.T. Smith proves he’s one. Citing Doc Watson in his title ratifies his taste in music. The mood Smith coaxes into being is, ironically, note-perfect, including the discordant chorus of ever-tuning cicadas. I suspect even insects aspire to the sweet savor of Doc Watson singing and picking “blues chords” with “a sober shine.” First link below has Doc performing “Deep River Blues.” Second link below has him explaining how. (Pick it up at 1:37 on the timer.) But even Doc can’t quite fully explain his je ne sais quoi genius. The brilliance of Smith’s villanelle actually comes the closest. I’m now certain “R.T.” stands for “Right Touch.” And Terence Winch’s weekly poem picking also remains flawless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=6VAbrnjdtYw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE2swkx9WXE&t=80s

[Terence Winch]

Earle:  thanks for the excellent comment (and links).

[Cindy Hochman]

What a wonderful villanelle. And, yeah, those darn cicadas!