A Study
By
Michael P. Garofalo
May 5, 2001
Hidden by the fog -
Mountains,
noisy magpies.
Toying with
nine ideas like one old cottonwood holds
nine magpies.
Magpies
sizing up
Tuscan Butte.
Qua-qua,
qua! Qua-qua!
Qua-qua,
qua! Qua-qua, qua! Qua!
A magpie
love song.
Magpies hop and squawk to start our day,
begging for dog food in the feeder tray.
The white geese
float in
flooded rice fields -
magpies hop
by cowpies.
Pecking in
the weeds
a yellow
billed magpie;
we pick a
cabbage.
Letting cars pass by,
magpies wait on barbed wire
eyeing the red roadkill.
a dead cat
one leg up -
magpies hop closer
[Some sketches are based on variations of themes from Wallace Stevens, Issa, and Thoreau.]
John James Audubon
Bird II
Pica Pica
A nasal querulous maag? cry
while in hooping flight
like mortar shells, knowing
death is holy and good to eat,
links homo lupus to Magpie,
toe back, apposed thumb
— pollex or passerine
intelligence the same,
we live and speak together
at the side of the road,
our young also greenish, blotched,
though magpies
do not make war.
- Howard McCord, Four Birds
The magpies in Picardy
Are more than I can tell.
They flicker down the dusty roads
And cast a magic spell
On the men who march through Picardy,
Through Picardy to hell.
A magpie in Picardy
Told me secret things--
Of the music in white feathers,
And the sunlight that sings
And dances in deep shadows--
He told me with his wings.
- T.P. Cameron Wilson, 1917, Magpies in Picardy
One for sorrow, two for mirth,
three for a wedding, four for birth.
This popular country proverb was referred to when
you saw a specific
number of magpies at one time, e.g., if you saw three magpies then a
wedding would be coming. References: B. Haydon, Autobiography,
1853, I.V.. M.A. Denham, Proverbs Relating to Seasons, 1846, #35.
J.A. Simpson, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, 1982, 170.
Magpie
Eight-toes teetering
Sabre unscabbarded,
Bellying spinnaker
Fast to a fencepost,
Gape your black bill
In a squawk clean as
kindling!
On, with a smother
Of saw-toothed wingbeats,
My piebald jolly-boat!
Surge hull down
Past the crest of the ridge
Where the wind breaks, breaks
All day like foam.
-
Peter Davidson
(A Green Place: Modern Poems, 1982, p. 61)
With solemnity
The magpies are dissecting
A cat's dead body.
- Richard Wright, Haiku: This Other World, #711
Perhaps it was Maggie, perhaps not.
In solitary moments magpies
will perch on a branch and mutter soft soliloquies of whines and
squeals and chatterings, oblivious to what goes on around them.
It is one of those things, I suppose, intelligence now and then does,
must in fact now and then do, must think, must play, must imagine,
must talk to itself. ... What, finally, intelligence could be for:
finding your way back.
- Stanley Crawford, A Garlic Testament, p. 86.
References and Links
A Garlic Testament: Seasons on a Small New Mexico Farm. By Stanley Crawford. New York, Edward Burlingame Books, Harper Collins, 1992. 241 pages. ISBN: 0060182075. Chapters 15 is about is growing awareness of the presence of magpies on his farm, and chapter 16 tells a charming story about his raising a baby magpie.
Quotes
for
Gardeners
Spirituality and Concerns of the Soul
Haiku Poetry: Links and References
Pulling
Onions: The Maxims of Gardening
By Michael P. Garofalo
Cliches for Gardeners and Farmers
The
History of Gardening Timeline
From Ancient Times to the 20th Century
Short
Poems and Haiku by Mike Garofalo
The
Mental and Spiritual Aspects of Gardening
Bibliography and Resources
Quotes for Gardeners
Quotes, Sayings, Proverbs, Poetry, Maxims, Quips,
Cliches, Adages, Wisdom
A Collection Growing to Over 2,000 Quotes, Arranged by 105 Topics
Many of the Documents Include Recommended Readings and Internet Links.
Compiled by Michael P. Garofalo
Distributed on the Internet by Michael P. Garofalo
I Welcome Your
Comments, Ideas, Contributions, and Suggestions
E-mail Mike Garofalo in Red Bluff, California
A Short Biography of Mike Garofalo
Pica Nutalli: A Study: 21K, 5 May 2001, Version 3.3.5.
The History of Gardening Timeline
Haiku Poetry: Links, References, Resources
