Monday, July 12, 2010

TFE's Poetry Bus with Dominic Rivron


A little late for the bus, but couldn’t resist Dominic Rivron's  prompt this week.

Weirdly enough, while I was sitting in the kitchen writing the words on the egg (as you do) a small green bird smashed into the window. Maybe it resented the fact that I was only going to mention magpies.

When I got outside it slid to the ground, but as I was going back into the house it was sitting up, looking a bit dazed. Because I want this post to end on a happy note, I will not dwell on the cat, just emerging from his night’s sleep, who hadn’t as yet spotted it.

25 comments:

  1. What a great picture to go along with a really interesting poem. It's a real feast because it challenges my perceptions of magpies and the fact that I think of them as unlucky even though that's supposed to apply to only one. Also I only think of Magpies taking shinny things or is that Jays?

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  2. Birds scare when they get into the house! They always seem bigger than they are outside. Especially magpies. I hope you eat that egg and are topfilled with stories.

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  3. We went to a small odd zoo in Italy once that had a magpie in a cage as an exhibit...so strange.

    Loved the egg :)

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  4. Aw, hope the little green bird recovered in time to escape from the cat.

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  5. Shades of Snoopy's Woodstock in that tale...you sure it wasn't yellow?
    x

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  6. Strangely ominous.A mystery.Must have been seven of them.

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  7. fun fun fun.
    I hope the bird made it. Can't be easy to fly with a concussion.

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  8. Love the hint of menace here.

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  9. Gwei Mui, you're right - it's single magpies that are supposed to be unlucky, but there's something about a group of them chattering in a garden that makes me uneasy. Had the same thought about them going for shiny things, and then decided maybe it's Jackdaws that steal things?

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  10. Jessica, I agree. Birds inside a house are terrifying. What I did with the egg was, I put it back in its box, then this evening I used it to make mayonnaise and ate it with fresh crab claws. Yum!

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  11. Domestic, that is very strange. I don't like magpies, but putting one in a cage?? Maybe in Italy they're a rarity?

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  12. Niamh B, you'll be glad to hear when I went to check on the bird a little later it was gone. There were no feathers, no eggs - nothing! So unless the cat is a very tidy eater, I'm guessing he made a break for it.

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  13. Rachel, no. It was green. Definitely green. With maybe just a hint of yellow . . and a funny little cockatoo on top of its cute little head . . . ;)

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  14. Tfe, there may well have been seven of them. There may even have been 97. And there may have been just one. It was indeed a mysterious event.

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  15. NanU, yes, I worried about concussion too. But there was no sign of him a few minutes later so I'm guessing he got away :)

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  16. Love the egg, but it's the story that leaves me smiling. Here, Kitty, Kitty!

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  17. While in Dublin this May, I remarked to a cabdriver how beautiful the magpies were. We don't have those birds here in the States, well, at least nowhere that I've lived anyway. They really are amazing creatures.

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  18. My kids and I spent hours (when they were small) watching a robin (a big fat robin) try to get off the ground. He never made it. We named him Fat Robin. At least he didn't crash into a window. Loved your story.

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  19. Karen, thanks for visiting. The Kitty was at death's door a few weeks ago, but has since made a miraculous recovery.

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  20. Jeanne Iris, it's hard to imagine a world without magpies. They're none too popular in this neck of the woods - not too sure why, apart from the clackety clacking noise they make. Hope you enjoyed Dublin?

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  21. Helen, what a name - 'big fat robin' says it all really, doesn't it. Thanks for reading :)

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  22. Sorry - that should have read 'fat robin' - dunno how that big slipped in there!

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  23. Brilliant little poem and excellent anecdote. (Best not dwell on that cat.)

    Kat

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