{"sf1_id":1758784,"sf2_id":"Vm2K56Wn","title":"To The Shrike","author":"Corvid_Conquest","words":106,"posted_at":"2021-09-01T13:33:00.000Z","tags":["Bird","Ekphrastic","Ink","Meter","Miyamoto","Nature","Ode","Painting","Poem","Poetry","Rhyme","Samurai","Shrike","Sumi-E","To","Verse","art","english","literature","musashi","the"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1758784-to-the-shrike","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/Vm2K56Wn","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/5b/7c/5b7cc468-2ef1-4eb4-944a-514b376cdc89","description":"#3 of Lyric Poetry\n\nHere's some ekphrastic poetry, with inspiration taken from a sumi-e painting done by legendary samurai, Miyamoto Musashi. The painting in question is titled Shrike on a Withered Branch.","content":"The butcher-bird is perched, like sentinel of stone -  \n\nUnmovable and steady as the mountain -\n\nUpright upon a branch, protruding there alone,\n\nStanding guard against the fountain\n\nStreaming down across his lethal gaze.\n\nThe butcher-bird a flash now spots his evening prey,\n\nAnd leaps from off his fragile pillar.\n\nHis talons like a sword, have earned their meaty pay;\n\nReturning to the branch a killer,\n\nHe skewers upon his perch the victim dazed.\n\nThe butcher-bird, the reaper-bird is calling,\n\nWho feasts upon the living as the dead.\n\nA little ave from out his perch is falling,\n\nAnd swooping down to fill all earth with dread.\n\n  \n  \n\n"}