Machiavellian character pens ordinary verse for pigeon (8)
I believe the answer is:
province
'pigeon' is the definition.
(both can mean a person's area of expertise)
'machiavellian character pens ordinary verse' is the wordplay.
'machiavellian character' becomes 'prince' (reference to The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli).
'pens' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'ordinary' becomes 'o' (abbreviation e.g. O-Levels).
'verse' becomes 'v'.
'o'+'v'='ov'
'prince' placed around 'ov' is 'PROVINCE'.
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for province that I've seen before include "Major division of Ireland,or range of responsibility" , "department?" , "Administrative region" , "Administrative district in some countries" , "Territory" .)