Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

steady thrum thrum of the human heart. What a feeling of loneli­ness they inspire:  when I was a boy they made me imagine all sorts of direful things. Now they give me the “blues” - the unexplicable kind. They seem to keep perfect time with each other. By listening very closely we sometimes can imagine we hear one at odds with the others. But it is best to listen easily otherwise we miss that steady throbbing which is the best part. As I listen their singing seems to send my senses in am up and down movement -­ up and down - up and down - constant and unending.

     Perhaps the loneliness and desolateness we feel on hearing the crickets sing is the fact that they are the earliest sign of approaching fall. Before they begin, things have been growing and developing towards ripeness. For a short while in late June and early July nature is at her full growth