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Lyrebirds. For Siobhan Keenan. ‘The lyrebird sings one of the longest, most melodious and complex of all bird songs. The males have become superlative mimics…a skilled ornithologist may be able to recognise the songs of over a dozen other birds embedded in the lyrebird’s incomparable recitals. Some individuals have territories close to those occupied by human beings and they incorporate the new sounds they hear coming across their frontiers. So they include in their performances accurate imitations of such things as spot-welding machines, burglar alarms and camera motor drives.’ – Sir David Attenborough ‘How could I possibly join them on to the little bit (two Inches wide) of Ivory on which I work with so fine a Brush, as produces little effect after much labour? – Jane Austen. The ‘little bit of ivory’ was a slim pocket notebook composed of pieces of ivory bound together and on which she could make notes in pencil and later erase. ‘I spilt the dew – But took the morn – I chose this single star From out the wide night’s numbers – Sue – forevermore!’ ‘One Sister have I in our house’ – Emily Dickinson ‘This is why I value that little phrase “I don’t know” so highly. It’s small, but it flies on mighty wings. It expands our lives to include the spaces within us as well as those outer expanses in which our tiny Earth hangs suspended.’ – ‘The Poet and the World’, Nobel Prize lecture, 1996, Wisława Szymborska ‘I often wondered what my grandmother knew that none of the rest of us knew and if she alone knew it, or if it was a 86
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total mystery that really nobody knew except perhaps God.’ – Elizabeth Bishop ‘On me your voice falls as they say love should, Like an enormous yes.’ – ‘For Sidney Bichet’, Philip Larkin ‘It’s evident the art of losing’s not too hard to master though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.’ – ‘One Art’, Elizabeth Bishop ‘To see a World in a Grain of Sand  And a Heaven in a Wild Flower  Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand  And Eternity in an hour’ ‘Auguries of Innocence’ – William Blake ‘The flight is safe; the weather is all arranged. The waves are running in verses this fine morning. Please come flying.’ ‘Invitation to Miss Marianne Moore’ – Elizabeth Bishop ‘All of you in a space full of sounds – in the shade and in the light. You were called AUXOCHROME the one who captures colour. I CHROMOPHORE – the one who gives colour.’ – Frida Kahlo, from a letter to Diego de Rivera ‘My only desire’s a desire to be free from desire.’ ‘Desire’s a Desire’ – Selima Hill 87

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Lyrebirds. For Siobhan Keenan. ‘The lyrebird sings one of the longest, most melodious and complex of all bird songs. The males have become superlative mimics…a skilled ornithologist may be able to recognise the songs of over a dozen other birds embedded in the lyrebird’s incomparable recitals. Some individuals have territories close to those occupied by human beings and they incorporate the new sounds they hear coming across their frontiers. So they include in their performances accurate imitations of such things as spot-welding machines, burglar alarms and camera motor drives.’ – Sir David Attenborough ‘How could I possibly join them on to the little bit (two Inches wide) of Ivory on which I work with so fine a Brush, as produces little effect after much labour? – Jane Austen. The ‘little bit of ivory’ was a slim pocket notebook composed of pieces of ivory bound together and on which she could make notes in pencil and later erase. ‘I spilt the dew – But took the morn – I chose this single star From out the wide night’s numbers – Sue – forevermore!’ ‘One Sister have I in our house’ – Emily Dickinson ‘This is why I value that little phrase “I don’t know” so highly. It’s small, but it flies on mighty wings. It expands our lives to include the spaces within us as well as those outer expanses in which our tiny Earth hangs suspended.’ – ‘The Poet and the World’, Nobel Prize lecture, 1996, Wisława Szymborska ‘I often wondered what my grandmother knew that none of the rest of us knew and if she alone knew it, or if it was a

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