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      May 29, 2025Margaret WinikatesTanager’s Cantrip

      Flicker flutter flap and float—
      song explodes from every throat.
      Shimmer shadow sparkle shine—
      dappled sunlight draws the line.
      Enter wander wonder will—
      magic lives within you still.
      Glimmer glisten gleam and glow—
      the sky’s the road; the song you know.
       
      Image: “Green Wood Birds” by Stephanie Trenchard. “Tanager’s Cantrip” was written by Margaret Winikates for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, April 2025, and selected as the Editor’s Choice.

      from Ekphrastic Challenge

      Comment from the series editor, Megan O'Reilly

      “I was moved by ‘Tanager’s Cantrip’ before I even looked up the word “cantrip,” but when I read the definition–‘a magical spell’—I had a moment of ‘ah, of course.’ With its alliterative, chanting rhymes, this poem is an incantation, a blaze of magic language to match the visual magic of Stephanie Trenchard’s painting. The light, color, and movement in the image all contribute to its air of enchantment, and yet the figure of the girl is motionless and beige—an artistic choice that seems to lend credence to the poet’s use of the word still in ‘magic lives within you still.’ The girl in the painting, one could speculate, struggles to connect with the beauty around her. The last line of ‘Tanager’s Cantrip,’ seems to remind her that, despite this perceived separateness, she is where she belongs.”

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