Artist: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

Many A Moonlit Caveat
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

The Barn Owl Knew Better
Than to Listen to Them.
With their Fanciful and Fictional accounts,
Of gentle sleights and creative aggressions.
He Just Knew Better.

So when the night air carried their lies aloft,
The Barn Owl balked and brushed them off.

The Night Jar Knew Better
Than to Talk To Them.
And waste on them what little small-talk
She could muster between twilight and sunrise
She Knew Better Than That.

So when they paused their chatter, that she might speak her mind
The Night Jar chose silence, and kept her thoughts unaligned

The Corncrake Knew Better
Than to Consume Anything They Served Him.
His being a Stomach too Sentient
For such Speculative Sustenance.
The Corncrake Knew So Much Better.

And when, to tempt him, they laid the table full of ale, bread and fish
The Corncrake held his nerve and declined every proffered dish

The Woodcock Knew Better
Than to Let Them Lay on the Hands.
Because, invariably, what began as a soothing stroke
Quickly became something akin to a strangulation
The Woodcock Simply Knew Better.

So whenever he felt Their Feral Fingers float to where they had no right,
The Woodcock spun around and used his beak to snap them tight.

And Then There Is The Nightingale.
Oh, The Nightingale!
The Nightingale Knows Best.
She Knows That It Is Better To Exist
In Their Myths and Imaginings
And Keep the Hell Out Of Their Rank Reality.
She Knows That To Blend in Like the Chameleon,
Is To Perplex the Potentially Murderous Gaze.

The Nightingale Knows That To Be Unseen,
Is Ofttimes to Be Truly Free.

So from the safety of the thicket and clean out of sight
The Nightingale’s song drifts from dusk to daylight,
To Mesmerise Jinns with high notes and hums,
As Nightly They Contemplate Whence It Comes.

Jack Shainman Gallery presents Many A Moonlit Caveat, an exhibition of new paintings and works on paper by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye spanning both New York City locations.

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (born and based in London) is an artist and writer of Ghanaian descent. She attended Falmouth School of Art, and the Royal Academy Schools. Her work has been shown internationally, with her most recent solo exhibitions being No Twilight Too Mighty at the Guggenheim Bilbao (2023) and Fly in League with the Night, organized by the Tate Britain in 2021, which toured Europe. In 2025, Yiadom-Boakye curated the group show To Improvise A Mountain, a Hayward Gallery touring exhibition. The final iteration will open at the De La Warr Pavilion on June 27, 2026.