This week's choice of poems started with Burns's paean to a song thrush heard in January.
Here for the last day of the month is a tiny poem relishing the musical prowess of a mavis - the traditional Scottish name for the thrush. It comes from Vivien Jones's new collection, Short of Breath (Cultured Llama Publishing).
HEY HO, THE MAVIS
Sibelius software, I'm working on
a Tudor song transposed for viols,
worktop under a fan of manuscript
containing a song as urgent as
the one sounding on my rooftop,
where a thrush, head thrown back
is stating his intention of making
the very perfection of nests
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