A Clattering in the Garden

There are jackdaws in the garden
playing hide-and-seek
in the willow and the birch

congregating
jabbering
flying

jet-black jazz hands
flapping
signing

communicating the message
that autumn is already knocking
on the year’s door

warning us that leaves
and acorns will
fall once more

Kim M. Russell, 11th August 2025

Image found on Freepik

It’s Monday and at the dVerse Poets Pub we are writing quadrilles, poems of exactly 44 words, with De, who asks ‘Shall we jabber on?’

De wants us to ‘jam some form of the word ‘jabber’into our quadrilles, reminding us that it means to talk rapidly and excitedly with little sense, and giving us examples of how we can use it.

56 thoughts on “A Clattering in the Garden”

      1. I just read it for the first time. Is it just coincidence that the horrible anti-black laws in the South were “Jim Crow” Laws? This is the name given the Jackdaw in “The Jackdawof Rheims.”

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      2. The term ‘Jim Crow’ in ‘The Jackdaw of Rheims’ refers to the canonization of the jackdaw and is a playful name given by the monks, which is unrelated to the Jim Crow laws of the American South.

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  17. Oops.. my last comment got cut off. This is what I discovered: The name “Jim Crow” for the laws enforcing racial segregation in the United States originated from a minstrel show character created by Thomas Dartmouth “Daddy” Rice in the 1830s. Rice’s character, “Jim Crow,” was a caricature of a Black man, often portrayed as clumsy, dim-witted, and subservient. This character became widely popular and the term “Jim Crow” was eventually adopted as a derogatory term for Black people, and then for the laws and customs that enforced racial segregation. 

    Obviously, I prefer your unrealted “JimCrow” story..

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    1. THe Jackdaw of Rheims was published a little later, in 1840, by Richard Harris, an English cleric of the Church of England, a novelist and a humorous poet. He was known generally by his pseudonym Thomas Ingoldsby and as the author of The Ingoldsby Legends.

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  20. I can’t wait for fall and for our clouds of jabbering crows migrating from the Walmart parking lot over to the convenience store for winter warm weather. Thank you for your very wonderful poem.

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  21. I wasn’t familiar with jackdaws until reading and googling, so thanks for that. I like the idea of these lovely creatures spreading the news of Autumn’s arrival. Especially love this..

    “jet-black jazz hands
    flapping
    signing”

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  24. i love your poem full of busy birds! I am feeling earth turning towards fall where i live too. Summer goes fast, this year sadly full of wildfires.

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