The soil is dark and damp from rain,
the spade lifts it easily, over again—
it’s prestidigitation!
Hey presto, a robin spots a worm,
watches as it wriggles and squirms
on the soil-encrusted blade
and then swoops in to gobble it down—
that’s prestidigitation!
Kim M. Russell, 20th April 2026
It’s Monday and, at the dVerse Poets Pub, time for the quadrille, this week with Punam, who tells us that she is digging and planting in a very hot April, which brought her to the word to include in our quadrilles: ‘dig’.
Punam has dug out some poems about digging and shared excerpts from them: ‘Digging’ by Donald Hall, ‘Grave Digging’ by Rodney Jones, ‘Dig’ by Placebo Recovery, ‘To Dig, Fertilize, Plow and Water’ by Gershon Wolf and one of my favourite poems by one of my favourite poets, ‘Digging’ by Seamus Heaney.
Punam asks us to flex our fingers, rotate our wrists and dig out 44-word quadrilles from our creative minds.
writing in north norfolk 
Such a clever sleight of hands 🙂 I love the soil in spring…
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Thanks Björn. I still haven’t got digging yet and there’s so much weeding to be done.
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You certainly are a magician, Kim! Love the dextrous Q.
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Thankyou very much, Punam!
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My pleasure, Kim.
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Magic indeed! You’ve unearthed a wonderful Q with your pen (or digits) for spade. 🙂
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Thank you so much, Dora, your comment made me smile.
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Mission accomplished. 🙂 You’re welcome, Kim.
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Nice. And with a shovel!
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Thanks Ken!
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Abra-cadabra worm, no doubt!
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It is indeed! “Prestidigitation” is a mouthful (or “wormful” as the case may be 😉 ) This made me smile ❤
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One has to be quick to get that worm. Great choice of word.
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