• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe

The cicadas are coming and other poems (7 Quick Takes)

April 24, 2021
By Rita Buettner
Catholic Review
Filed Under: Blog, Cicadas, Commentary, Open Window

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

For National Poetry Month, I’m writing my weekly 7 Quick Takes as 7 Quick-to-read Poems. I had no idea how many forms of poetry there are! I hope you enjoy them.

Cicadas Are Coming (Ghazal)

So much time has passed since we said, “Look, cicadas!”
Yes, seventeen years is what you took, cicadas.

Just as the weather warms and outdoors beckons,
We might want to find an indoor nook, cicadas.

With beady eyes and thin veined wings you’ll come,
With whir, buzz…taste for those who cook cicadas?

You’ll land on everyone and everything and make your mark,
While dropping from the branches that you shook, cicadas.

Creep from your holes and leave your shells behind,
Make your historic visit by the book, cicadas.

So, make yourselves at home, but please don’t stay.
Go quickly as you came, just like a crook, cicadas.

An Epitaph

Here lies a house that once was sort of clean,
Not that it ever shone with quite a dazzling sheen.
But now it’s more a morning frat house scene,
The impact of this months-long quarantine.

Soup (Nonet)

I know someone who doesn’t like soup.
How is that even possible?
We enjoy soup every day.
Soup is so delicious.
Flavored broth and meat,
Sometimes seafood…
Look, veggies!
Yummy
Soup.

Finch Frenzy (Palindrome)

Flapping wings
With feathers carrying angels
Perch to perch
Then around again circling,
Chirping, meeping, singing,
Voice to voice
Call and answer,
Finchy whirlwind
~Frenzy~
Whirlwind
Finchy answer and call,
Voice to voice
Singing, meeping, chirping,
Circling again around then
Perch to perch
Angels carrying
Feathers
With wings flapping.

Honored and Humble (Tanka)

My eighth grader niece:
The honor society
Invites her to join
And she politely declines
With humility and grace.

A Challenge (Clerihew)

Have you met my dear sister Treasa,
Whose house is not ever a mess-a.
She reads and homeschools
And knows clerihew rules.

Spring (Cinquain)

Springtime
Flowers blooming
Bring on the allergies
With the gorgeous bursts of color
New life.

Find more quick takes on Kelly’s blog, This Ain’t the Lyceum, and have a wonderful weekend!

Copyright © 2021 Catholic Review Media

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Rita Buettner

View all posts from this author

| Recent Commentary |

Our Lady of the Snows: An unlikely patron in August

Gray cloudy sky above a church and flowering trees

A Small Gift on a Cloudy Day

JOB

Why would God allow Satan to torture Job?

OSV Editors: The atrocity against humanity in Gaza must end

How to grow in faith for back-to-school

| Recent Local News |

Sister Rita Ann Naughton, I.H.M., dies at 88

St. Bernardine Choir celebrates 50 years of song, spirit and community

Grillo Family Reflection Space

Loyola University Maryland receives $1 million gift supporting aspiring educators, creation of reflection space

Sister Miriam Jansen, former director of international programs at Notre Dame of Maryland, dies at 86

Conference of Major Superiors of Men

Men’s religious leaders confront change with fraternity and faith

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Our Lady of the Snows: An unlikely patron in August
  • Amid shift in public opinion on immigration, Catholic advocates praise bipartisan attempt at reform
  • A Small Gift on a Cloudy Day
  • Planned Parenthood defunding remains in question amid legal challenges
  • Experts see US UNESCO exit as blow to historic preservation for churches, other sites
  • Thousands visit Blessed Frassati’s remains in Rome for Jubilee of Youth
  • Young teen’s relics a reminder for pilgrims that holiness ‘is not impossible’
  • Court dismisses case against prominent exorcist priest
  • Against the odds, CRS has delivered aid to 1.7 million in Gaza since 2023

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en