# To The Shrike

Author: Corvid_Conquest
Tags: Bird, Ekphrastic, Ink, Meter, Miyamoto, Nature, Ode, Painting, Poem, Poetry, Rhyme, Samurai, Shrike, Sumi-E, To, Verse, art, english, literature, musashi, the

#3 of Lyric Poetry

Here'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.

The butcher-bird is perched, like sentinel of stone -  

Unmovable and steady as the mountain -

Upright upon a branch, protruding there alone,

Standing guard against the fountain

Streaming down across his lethal gaze.

The butcher-bird a flash now spots his evening prey,

And leaps from off his fragile pillar.

His talons like a sword, have earned their meaty pay;

Returning to the branch a killer,

He skewers upon his perch the victim dazed.

The butcher-bird, the reaper-bird is calling,

Who feasts upon the living as the dead.

A little ave from out his perch is falling,

And swooping down to fill all earth with dread.

Source: https://sofurry.com/s/Vm2K56Wn