Poetry Thursday - two birds

 Jay

A crow in fancy dress

tricked out in pink and russet

with blue and black and white accessories

lurks in a tree, managing not to squawk

his confession: 'I am not a nice bird.'

   - Fleur Adcock

Crane

On guard and at rest at the same time,

the right claw planted in the earth, a rock

in its left that falls if it sleeps. A stone

in its bill to keep it from singing its dreams.

The wherewithal of a crane, its own sentry,

pinning the land to the land with its foot.

A crane, lifting the lid of the town, pulling the plug.

The city centre swinging from a crane's hook.

    - Simon Armitage

Invited to make an exhibition of illustrations in celebration of the Saison Poetry Library, London, Mary Kuper took a quotation from Jospeh Brodsky a a starting point:

"Poetry is a dame with a huge pedigree, and every word comes practically barnacled with allusions and associations."

The illustrations are linked to etymological excavations, and suggest the play between the words poets use and the meanings buried in their forgotten roots and histories. 

The book was published in 2012, in celebration of 100 years of books in the poetry library, whose collection, for whatever reason, starts in 1912.