Wingspan

The poem I’ve written this month for a residency at Waterland in Cotswold Water Park was inspired by the white magpie that lives on the shores of Lake 32. I’d been swimming at the lake for a long time before I first saw the bird, but once I had seen it, it became a ritual to spot it every visit.

Magpies have been seen as evil, predictors of fire, famine and impending death. As is well known, British folklore sees solitary magpies as harbingers of ill fortune and saluting them is said to ward off bad luck. Victorians were so fearful of magpies which were said to have a drop of devil’s blood under their tongues that they were hunted almost to extinction.

White magpies are very rare and birders will travel long distances to se them. The bird is not albino but has leucism, a genetic condition resulting in partial loss of pigmentation. But what if a magpie is white?  Do they symbolise peace, purity, good news or perhaps - in fact - good luck and everything opposite to their black and white counterpart? Who knows! The history books are silent on this, but I’m keeping an open mind: the white magpie can mean what you want it to mean.