Song birds have been well serenaded in the poetry spot this spring! Today it’s the turn of a less instantly endearing, if characterful, avian family.
The piece comes from Garfield Taylor’s collection, White Horses (Book Guild, £12.99).
CORVIDAE
That bright-eyed bird the carrion crow
Is not so daft as he might seem.
If there’s some trick he doesn’t know,
He’ll work it out and hatch a scheme.
~
The birdfeeder is to him a challenge,
Conveniently dangling from some tree.
Watch him perch upon the top
And peck until the string breaks free.
~
The magpie’s gift is all for taking,
Bright jewel or bird’s egg he’ll not pass by.
His domed nest secured at twice the making,
Know him pied with rattling cry.
~
By contrast, the jackdaw’s call is “yak”,
He wears his ruff in shades of grey.
He’ll nest within a chimney stack,
Nor sooty sweep will him dismay.
~
Who seeks the brightly-coloured jay
May find him in vibrant Todmorden town.
Look for him sometime, as gifts the day,
Where Walsden Water comes rushing down.
~
The raven comes with massive beak,
Some moorish hill or crag his lair.
See him soar above mountain peak,
Circling on thermals of rising air.
~
But at Tower of London the raven stays;
If he should go, then England falls.
They’ve clipped his wings to curb his ways,
He’s tourists’ wag within four walls.
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