The Magpie, by Claude Wilkinson

The Magpie, by Claude Monet (France) 1868-1869

​The Magpie
 
This is not a winter of discontent
though the crackled paint reminds us of age,
but what the French have called effet de neige--
just the absoluteness of a moment
before its mauve and pink fiction is spent
and a magpie’s black, white, and blue message
vanishes with the haste of a turned page
defying the artist’s eye and intent.
 
We’re left questioning whether bird remained
centered on a gate for him to complete
and then en plein air capture snow still bright,
amazed that fence shadows wouldn’t have changed
too quickly to be done sur le motif
against the world’s constantly failing light.
 
Claude Wilkinson 
 
This poem was first published in the author's collection, Marvelous Light (Stephen F. Austin University Press.)
​
Claude Wilkinson is a critic, essayist, painter, and poet. His poetry collections include Reading the Earth, winner of the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award, Joy in the Morning, Marvelous Light, World without End, and Soon Done with the Crosses. He has been a Provost Scholar and also John and Renee Grisham Visiting Southern Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi. Other honours for his poetry include a Walter E. Dakin Fellowship and the Whiting Writers' Award.