Skip to content

Scottish Poetry Library

Register/Sign in
Shopping Bag Shopping Bag
Bringing people and poems together
  • Home
  • COVID-19
    • Re-Opening FAQ
  • Poetry
    • Poems
    • Poets
    • Our National Poet
    • Podcasts
    • Best Scottish Poems
    • Poetry and Mindfulness
    • Champions 2020
    • Posters
    • Publishers
  • Library
    • Become a borrower
    • Catalogue
    • Collections
    • Ask a librarian
    • Copyright enquiries
  • Learning
    • National Poetry Day 2019
    • National Poetry Day archive
    • SQA set texts
    • Learning resources
    • New to poetry?
    • Advice for poets
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • Exhibitions
    • Venue hire
    • List an event
  • Shop
    • National Poetry Day 2020
    • New Titles
    • Poetry Pamphlet Cards
    • Pocket Poets
    • Scottish Poetry
    • Help
  • About us
    • Our story
    • Our people
    • Our projects
    • Jobs
    • Our building
    • FAQs
    • Find us
  • Support us
    • Become a Friend
    • Donate
    • Easy Fundraising
  • Blog
Shopping BagShopping Bag
Ask a librarian
  • Home
  • >
  • Poetry
  • >
  • Ciara MacLaverty
  • >
  • Cracking the Code
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

Cracking the Code

Ciara MacLaverty

When we feed nuts
to the squirrel
at our back door
he seems remarkably clever
to come back for more.
Yet if, after day one,
he failed to come
then squirrels would seem
incredibly dumb.


Ciara MacLaverty

Reproduced by permission of the poet.

Tags:

food giving national poetry day 2016 short poems squirrels wildlife

About this poem

‘Cracking the Code’ is one of the poems distributed on postcards to public libraries and participating schools across Scotland for National Poetry Day 2016

Listen

Share this
Facebook
Twitter
Email

Learn more

Ciara MacLavertyb.1968

Ciara MacLaverty was born in Belfast, educated on Islay and lives in Glasgow. Her poems have appeared in The Scotsman, New Writing Scotland and Gutter.
More about Ciara MacLaverty

Join

Become a Borrower or support our work by becoming a Friend of SPL.
Join us

Events

Discover poetry events at the Scottish Poetry Library and beyond.
Find forthcoming Events
  • Newsletter signup
  • Accessibility
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Scottish Poetry Library
5 Crichton's Close, Canongate
Edinburgh EH8 8DT
Tel: +44 (0)131 557 2876
© Scottish Poetry Library 2021.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
City of Edinburgh logo Green Arts Initiative logo Creative Scotland logo
By leaves we live

The Scottish Poetry Library is staffed weekdays from 10am – 2pm and is providing a limited service including postal loans and Click & Collect. For details, click COVID-19 in the menu bar above. Dismiss