Breaking News – Finale of the Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge.

Welcome to Week 13, the finale, of my Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge.  Corvids are birds belonging to the Corvidae family, encompassing ravens, crows, magpies, jays and nutcrackers.  So peruse your corvid photo, poetry, music and story archives and join the challenge.

You can participate in the Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge by creating a pingback to this post (my pingback approval settings are set up for manual approval, so it may take a little while for your pingback to appear) and/or by leaving a hyperlink to your submission in the comments.  Tag your post Corvid-2020 or C20WC.  I really do hope you will join in.

Apologies, dear Readers, for my tardiness in posting the final Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge. I got carried away. Now that the last week has arrived, I feel hollow. In my darkest hours during the Covid-19 crisis, I clung to my talisman ravens. They were a tonic for easing the mind, imaginary friends. Yes, perhaps I’m being a little melodramatic. The time has come to let them go. They’re birds, wild creatures with no attachments. I would like to end the challenge with another poem, I have called this poem, “Wagulan”. Wagulan is the Ngunnawal word for raven/crow, and in so doing, I acknowledge the traditional owners of Ngunnawal country, in whose country I reside. It goes like this.

Wagulan

Currawong chorus greets the misty dawn.
Magpies peck for grubs in viridescent lawn.
Magpie lark taunts much bigger birds,
Calls pee pee pee and flaps vociferously.
But from you, my prescient lucky charm,
I have not heard a single caw in days. Not one.

Like a darkling spectre in falling gloom,
have you left me to my trembling doom? Or
in twist of fate, my cloying misery have you
furloughed? The wheel of fortune
spins and turns. Lands where? Wagulan.
White-eyed knowing, black feathers glowing.

My comfort is your shadow overhead. Nullifies
the dying day, the lowing globe. Black as night.
Blessed caw. Have you set a course to help another
who needs you more, who wakes in fright?
The wheel of fortune spins and turns. Lands where?
Wagulan, go now my white-eyed friend. Help. Land fair.

Thanks to everyone who came on this journey with me. I had some wonderful contributions for last week’s penultimate challenge. Here they are are. Check them out.

The Raven and Sunset #2

Bird Fantasy

Final Caw

Oceanside

Plotting

Oh Jay! and

Two More Weeks of Magpies

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

44 thoughts on “Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge #13”

  7. I tried to get a photo of a blue jay for, I guess, 13 weeks, and I saw one flying by on Sunday but it did not stop, ugh! This was a great series, and I enjoyed it even as a mere reader. Thanks, Tracy!

    Liked by 1 person

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  13. It was a beautiful and inspiring series, Tracy! Thank you again for initiating it, and I’m sorry I have been absent the last two weeks (minor health issues that kept me away from any screens). It’s so sad that the challenge has now reached its end, but I understand, and I intend to write a farewell post about it (hopefully at the weekend). Your photos are spectacular and your poem accompanies them so beautifully! I know I’ll miss your beautiful ravens. Be well! ❤

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I hope you are on the mend now, Sarah. Avoiding the screen can do wonders at times.
      Thank you so much for joining me in this challenge, Sarah. It has been lovely to have your company and I learned a lot from your posts.. I’m looking forward to your wrap-up. No pressure though. Your health comes first.

      Liked by 1 person

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  16. I would have loved this challenge. Sadly, having arrived so late in the day, I feel a bit outside the loop and not quite able to engage – and I’m really sorry about it, it looks real good fun. I’m glad you’ve had such great contributions.

    Liked by 1 person

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  20. Fantastic, Tracy. I love the challenge, photos, and poem. “My comfort is your shadow overhead.”–now that is poetry! I’ll be having one of my sons, who likes to read poetry, but only if it has some rhyme (he is 10)! Your judicious use of rhyme is lovely and totally works in your almost-formal poem above. (Oh, and I had to look up “Currawong”–learned something new today!)

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you for that delightful compliment, Rebecca. I think rhyme adds melody to a poem, and as you probably know, I have a head full of other people’s songs. 🙂 Our currawongs are fabulous singers by the way.
      I wrote another very simple poem for children. It doesn’t rhyme but there is repetition. It is about a special Australian animal, the water rat. Your son might like it. The adults liked it so I think it has broad appeal. Educational too. 😉 Here it is – https://reflectionsofanuntidymind.blog/2019/08/08/top-predator-of-the-lake/

      Liked by 1 person

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