Early next month, this impossible project flies into the world — only 18 months after the idea of Birdbrains: A Lyrical Guide to Washington State Birds came to me. What? Why not marry my love of poetry to my newfound love of birds? Why not create a bird guide that might attract new birders?
I bought my first bird book, Birds of the Puget Sound Region, at the local hardware store. There it was right up front by the cash register. I had little spare cash back then and I wasn’t a birder. Didn’t know the word. But under the bird note for every species there was “Date and Location Seen” and that’s what convinced me! I would have an archive of my life in birds. And yes, dear reader, Birdbrains also has this feature.
The introduction I wrote, “Dear Reader,” is filled with the book’s backstory of how it was only one month from when I hatched the idea until I signed a contract. A miracle in the book world. The intro tells that I was inspired by the Cascadia Field Guide and Invisible Strings: Poets Respond to Taylor Swift — two very different books. However, they both share the idea of obsessions and of creating books that had never been done before.
In this way Birdbrains: A Lyrical Guide to Washington State Birds is very much their sister book. I know of no other bird guide that includes original art work (1001 thanks to Hiroko Seki), humorous bird notes (1001 thanks to Stephanie Delaney), and a 107 pieces of literature by contemporary poets and writers. Included is new work by Linda Bierds, Oliver de la Paz, Kathleen Flenniken, Carolyn Forche, Jane Hirshfield, Naomi Shihab Nye, Major Jackson, Kelli Russell Agodon, Brian Turner, Jane Wong and so many more bird loving writers.
But this is not meant as a sales pitch. (Although holidays are coming!)
What I want to tell you is that this book was born out of a need to change my poetry focus, at least for awhile. After the Blue Atlas book tour came to an end, I craved diving into something entirely new.
I knew that in this historical moment, joy was what I needed most. The joy of discovery; the joy of being in nature; the joy of entering beginner’s mind. Joy!
I still can’t tell you the difference between a golden sparrow and a song sparrow’s song. I mix up the sharp shinned hawk and her other hawk relatives regularly. I doubt I will ever become a master birder. I’m okay with that.
Most of the things I enjoy doing in the world: birding, flower design, gardening, I don’t need to excel at. But when it comes to words, there’s something different going on in my mind. I want to excel. It’s in this interplay of beginner’s mind with the 10,000+ hours I’ve spent with poetry that I am happiest.
