Missives from the Verge with Allyson Shaw

Missives from the Verge with Allyson Shaw

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Missives from the Verge with Allyson Shaw
Missives from the Verge with Allyson Shaw
What the Mute Swans Told Me 🦢

What the Mute Swans Told Me 🦢

on this terrible waxing moon 🌔

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Allyson Shaw
Nov 09, 2024
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A painting of rustic colour blocks of white, pink, grey and ochre over which two swans--one black and the other white--entwine like a puzzle, their beaks meeting in a kiss
Hilma af Klint, Swans 1915.
Walking at Night Beside the Little Sea(*)

Mute swans call in darkness 
between explosions. Fizz-Boom-Crackle--

Bonfire Night fireworks detonate.
Sulphurous clouds drift over 

a sybilline chorus of swan honk, 
amplified as if on a looper pedal.(**)

Long-necked shadows pass 
over light-scored lochan.(***) 

They sing to each…

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