Extraordinary Discourse 184
Any hoo… My brother once commented, 'Now I get how writers work. You're magpies.' Which we both understood to mean: Writers scavenge from wherever they can, In the case of 'Divine,' I scavenged from Dante, Plato, the Bible, fairy tales, old vampire movies…. When I googled 'magpies' for this statement, I discovered they possess a few more writerly traits: they are clever and often despised, little poètes maudits . The Chinese considered them messengers of joy, but the Scots thought they carried a drop of Satan's blood under their tongues. They are fond of bright objects. Kim Addonizio The Best American Poetry 2013