{"id":8718,"date":"2024-12-11T16:37:03","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T16:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/?p=8718"},"modified":"2024-12-11T16:37:03","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T16:37:03","slug":"the-magpie-poems-by-christian-ward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/the-magpie-poems-by-christian-ward\/","title":{"rendered":"The Magpie Poems by Christian Ward"},"content":{"rendered":"

Magpie Season\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The lawn is a chequerboard
\nthis morning \u2013 all black and white.
\nNo hint of a bluejay\u2019s marquetry
\nor the elegant tailoring of a wood\u00a0
\npigeon nibbling at the elderberries.<\/p>\n

The grass sings nursery rhymes,
\nsunlight filtering through the trees
\noffers to tell my fortune. The cats
\nare skulking behind closed curtains,
\nfearful of these travellers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Come tomorrow, they will have moved
\non. Their left behind treasures will glint
\nfrom the soil beds: a silver ear,\u00a0
\nthe curled up shell of a tin can, an emerald\u00a0
\nbead blessing the land with its light.<\/p>\n

The Hidden\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our love was never\u00a0
\nmeant to be found.<\/p>\n

Our love was supposed\u00a0
\nto be like the first rosehips
\nof the summer: fat and explosive,
\nstaining the air with unburnt sugar.<\/p>\n

Private detectives of owls
\nwere not intended\u00a0
\nto be on our trail.<\/p>\n

The moon peering\u00a0
\nwith its magnifying glass
\nshouldn’t have been on the case.<\/p>\n

The foxes rummaging\u00a0
\nfor the past skeletons
\nof our failed attempts\u00a0
\nshould have been distracted
\nfrom the scent.<\/p>\n

The rain never had our best\u00a0
\nintentions in mind,\u00a0
\nletting us run through\u00a0
\nwhile calling the authorities.<\/p>\n

We are jailed within\u00a0
\neach other while the ivy
\nruns free and brilliant,
\nsparking weeds that hiss
\nand weep at all hours of the day.<\/p>\n

Late Summer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your name\u00a0
\ndrips from the last\u00a0
\nof the rosehips.<\/p>\n

It crackles
\nlike leftover fireworks\u00a0
\non the lawn,<\/p>\n

welcomes autumn\u00a0
\nthrough the blackberries\u00a0
\noffering their wares,<\/p>\n

sends messages\u00a0
\nthrough the blackbirds\u00a0
\nsaying I am here, this is my song.<\/p>\n

Listen.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Christian Ward<\/strong> is a UK-based poet with recent work in Dust, Free the Verse, Loch Raven Review, Cider Press Review<\/em> and elsewhere. He won the first 2024 London Independent Story Prize for poetry and the 2024 Maria Edgeworth Festival Poetry Competition. <\/p>\n

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Magpie Season\u00a0 The lawn is a chequerboard this morning \u2013 all black and white. No hint of a bluejay\u2019s marquetry or the elegant tailoring of a wood\u00a0 pigeon nibbling at the elderberries. The grass sings nursery rhymes, sunlight filtering through the trees offers to tell my fortune. The cats are skulking behind closed curtains, fearful … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1024,43],"tags":[18,136,3],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8718"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8718"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8722,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8718\/revisions\/8722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}