I am with you Joanna. I could spend my life reading, which is more or less
what I do, but I like to think that I also do other things.
On 8/16/07, Joanna Boulter <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Anny, that is absolutely fascinating! I had no idea locusts changed colour
> when they swarmed, though I had heard that the sheer numbers of them
> darken
> the sky. Just goes to show, you can look things up but nothing beats
> conversation for learning interesting facts.
>
> Sorry, all -- I'm just one of those idiots who likes to know all sorts of
> unnecessary things. Well, you never know what's going to find its way into
> a
> poem, do you?
>
> joanna
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Anny Ballardini" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 7:58 PM
> Subject: Re: poem revised
>
>
> I think we are both right. Wikipedia says the following:
>
> Locusts are several species of short-horned
> grasshoppers</wiki/Short-horned_grasshopper>of the family
> Acrididae </wiki/Acrididae> that sometimes form very large groups
> (swarms);
> these can be highly destructive and migrate in a more or less coordinated
> way. Thus, these grasshoppers have solitary and gregarious (swarm) phases.
> Locust swarms can cause massive damage to crops </wiki/Agriculture>.
> Important locust species include *Schistocerca
> gregaria</wiki/Schistocerca_gregaria>
> * and *Locusta migratoria </wiki/Locusta_migratoria>* in Africa and the
> Middle East, and *Schistocerca
> piceifrons</w/index.php?title=Schistocerca_piceifrons&action=edit>
> * in tropical Mexico and Central America (Mesoamerica
> </wiki/Mesoamerica>).
> Other grasshoppers important as pests (which, unlike "true" locusts, do
> not
> change color when they form swarms) include *Melanoplus
> </wiki/Melanoplus>*species (like
> *M. bivittatus*, *M. femurrubrum* and *M. differentialis*) and *Camnula
> pellucida </w/index.php?title=Camnula_pellucida&action=edit>* in North
> America; the lubber
> grasshopper</w/index.php?title=Lubber_grasshopper&action=edit>
> *Brachystola magna </w/index.php?title=Brachystola_magna&action=edit>*,
> and
> *Sphenarium
> purpurascens</w/index.php?title=Sphenarium_purpurascens&action=edit>
> * in Northern and Central Mexico; and species of
> *Rhammatocerus</w/index.php?title=Rhammatocerus&action=edit>
> * in South America.
>
> and there is an impressive pic of a Bark Mimicking Grasshopper,
> Coryphistes
> ruricola, see here:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grasshopper
>
>
>
> On 8/16/07, Joanna Boulter <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > Wouldn't those be locusts? Bigger, and notoriously hungry, an effect
> which
> > is made worse because they move in huge skyfilling swarms. All these
> seem
> > to
> > be the same sort of tribe, though if we have any biologists on board who
> > are
> > able to correct me, I''d be most interested to know.
> >
> > joanna
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Anny Ballardini" <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 2:10 PM
> > Subject: Re: poem revised
> >
> >
> > the much I like your version I can't but remember a movie with
> > grasshoppers
> > in Africa that ate down everything _a nightmare.
> >
> > On 8/16/07, Joanna Boulter <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > >
> > > We have grasshoppers. They're the polite version.
> > >
> > > joanna
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Anny Ballardini" <[log in to unmask]>
> > > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > > Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 1:12 PM
> > > Subject: Re: poem revised
> > >
> > >
> > > In Tuscany in the yellow summer fields, a "maracas-like rattle" as
> > Martin
> > > says, and plenty of them in poems as well. You can find them also here
> > in
> > > the north, but it has to be a very hot summer and then there are the
> > > crickets too. Completely different sounds, songs, cries whatever that
> > is.
> > > I
> > > am surprised you do not have them in England.
> > >
> > > On 8/16/07, Joanna Boulter <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Am not sure whether it was cicadas or crickets I encountered in
> > Malaysia
> > > > many years ago, but it was certainly something very similar, and
> they
> > > made
> > > > a
> > > > great deal of noise, especially at night. This could be rather
> > > exotically
> > > > pleasant; but when combined with dengue fever the effect is as
> though
> > > > one's
> > > > head is being assaulted by a road drill.
> > > >
> > > > Ah, thems wuz the days!
> > > >
> > > > joanna
> > > >
> > > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > > From: "MJ Walker" <[log in to unmask]>
> > > > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > > > Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 11:26 AM
> > > > Subject: Re: poem revised
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > LA CIGALE ayant chanté
> > > > Tout l'Esté
> > > > Se trouva fort dépourveuë
> > > > Quand la Bize fut venuë -
> > > > La Fontaine (but he got it from an Oriental tale)
> > > > The cicada having sung/ all the summmer long/ finds itself without a
> > > > crumb/ when the winds of autumn come.
> > > > You could come to the South of France, although one doesn't actually
> > see
> > > > them very often - they make an awful noise which has been described
> as
> > a
> > > > maracas-like rattle. Their wings sort of cover their body like a
> roof,
> > > > unlike grasshoppers & such.
> > > > mj
> > > >
> > > > Roger Day wrote:
> > > >
> > > > >i don't know what cicadas sound like, I don't even know wht they
> look
> > > > like.
> > > > >
> > > > >On 8/16/07, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > >>Well I have trouble with the first line -surely we know what they
> > > sound
> > > > >>like
> > > > >>-could it not be more informal shorter like say just(he says
> > > > >>tentatively!!)
> > > > >> cicadas trill
> > > > >>(or what ever they do blast stridulate ??barrack? clamour??
> > ballyhoo??
> > > > >>Cacophony?? Stridulating (like poets at a reading!!
> > > > >>Cheers P
> > > > >>
> > > > >>-----Original Message-----
> > > > >>From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:
> [log in to unmask]
> > ]
> > > On
> > > > >>Behalf Of andrew burke
> > > > >>Sent: 16 August 2007 07:27
> > > > >>To: [log in to unmask]
> > > > >>Subject: poem revised
> > > > >>
> > > > >>After a number of drafts, and some suggestions from p'etcers,
> > notably
> > > > >>Max 'Cooee' Richards, I have revised my 'snap' poem, Changing the
> > > > >>Sprinkler (including changing its title):
> > > > >>
> > > > >>
> > > > >>
> > > > >>Gibb River Evening
> > > > >>
> > > > >>
> > > > >>In the shrill sound of cicadas
> > > > >>I move the sprinkler
> > > > >>pulling the hose over
> > > > >>red rocky ground.
> > > > >>
> > > > >>Who drinks here
> > > > >>beneath the evening sky
> > > > >>with the lace silhouette
> > > > >>of tall gums before
> > > > >>the pink sky's edge?
> > > > >>A straw-necked ibis
> > > > >>wings away and quacks
> > > > >>like a duck. Beneath
> > > > >>ochre-red clay, amongst
> > > > >>a complex syntax of roots,
> > > > >>strongest of earth's creatures
> > > > >>push and pull a way
> > > > >>through thickest breath.
> > > > >>Webbed eggs fill a dark cavity,
> > > > >>a thick-bellied vein worms
> > > > >>by a deep chamber.
> > > > >>
> > > > >>I turn my ear to
> > > > >>a chortle, a choking sound
> > > > >>below the cicadas -
> > > > >>once, then nothing.
> > > > >>
> > > > >>
> > > > >>
> > > > >>--
> > > > >>Andrew
> > > > >>http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
> > > > >>http://www.inblogs.net/hispirits
> > > > >>http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/
> > > > >>
> > > > >>
> > > > >>--
> > > > >>No virus found in this incoming message.
> > > > >>Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> > > > >>Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.11.19/953 - Release Date:
> > > > >>14/08/2007
> > > > >>17:19
> > > > >>
> > > > >>
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Ne'er fash your thumb what gods decree
> > > > To be the weird of you or me.
> > > >
> > > > Robert Fergusson
> > > >
> > >
> >
>
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