Birdbrains! Or What I Did On My Summer Vacation.

Fabulous 20th Century Poets Return in September with Edna St. Vincent Millay~

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times —- was that Dickens? And how many of us can agree that these two opposing energies appear in our lives like kissing cousins—when there is only one cousin we really want to hang out with? My dear poet friend, Kelli Russell Agodon continually reminds me: It’s all energy.

Over 4th of July weekend, my least favorite of the national holidays, I found myself with no plans. Zero. Kind of sad, right? So instead of feeling like I had no friends (honestly, I have friends, they were just out of town, after all) I got to work daydreaming. It’s a favorite past time of mine.

Two Northern Flickers engaged in conversation. What are they saying?

Recently, I noticed that a lot of poets I know, and poets I had just met were working on interesting anthologies. For example Invisible Strings: 113 Poets Respond to the Songs of Taylor Swift edited by Kristie Dougherty. In this collection, each poet was asked to write to a particular Taylor Swift song — not using any of the lyrics but rather looking at the song “slant” as Emily Dickinson would say. I am honored to say I am one of the 113 poets along with Joy Harjo, Maggie Smith, Maya C. Popa, Ellen Bass, Ilya Kaminsky, Youssef Komunyakaa, January Gill O’Neil, Kelli Russell Agodon and me — the list goes on. It’s going to be great!

One of the things that Kristie Daugherty did that I admire so was to write her future contributors the occasional midnight letter. Receiving that late night email made me feel part of something —- a gang of poets that were all writing brand new poems for this anthology. We were Kristie’s gang; she’d gathered us together for her passion project.

What might happen next?

This and Elizabeth Bradfield’s (along with C.Marie Furhman and Derek Sheffield) the Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, and Poetry put me on the path to create my own boundary breaking project. I had just returned from touring with my new book Blue Atlas and I was searching for something brand new to work on. I think of Birdbrains: A Lyrical Guide to Washington State Birds, Raven Chronicles Press, 2025 as the love child between these very different books.

So sitting on my couch over 4th of July, I started a spreadsheet (which is already out of my comfort zone) asking who would I like to have as part of my flock? Which birds were going to represent Washington State? Little did I know that there are over 500 species on the Official Washington State Bird List.

Martha Silano was the poet that I thought of first. Marty has been writing about birds as long as I’ve known her. She wrote me back right away and wondered if she could write on the bald eagle? Her excitement for the natural world is contagious and generous. Then came a yes from Linda Bierds to use her poem on “The Swifts,” then came a sassy hummingbird poem by Anya Kirshbaum. The collection will include sonnets as well as twitter poetry. This is not your grandmother’s bird book —although I so hope to include Elizabeth Bishop’s, the Sandpiper.

I have so many dreams for this project. Mainly that it brings birders to poetry and poetry to birders. I remember so clearly purchasing my first bird book at the local hardware store, Birds of the Puget Sound Region by Morse, Aversa, and Opperman. I didn’t know anything about birds but on the bottom of each page was a place to write the date and location of the first sighting.It’s still my favorite bird book. There’s a new edition with some cool ideas on birdfeeders and where to go birding but the birds remain much the same.

I love poetry. I’ve been reading and studying it since I was 8 years old in Miss Schiavo’s third grade classroom but studying birds is a much newer pursuit. Living where I do in Seattle I am privileged to have so many different birds come visit my backyard from the hummingbird to the Stellar’s jay, the great blue heron to the junco. It’s a very modest backyard but it’s close to the Puget Sound. How can I not pay attention to my neighbors?

Fast forward to August 4th, just a month from when I had this new idea and I’m signing a contract with Raven Chronicles Press. My dream press for this particular project. This has never happened in terms of any of my other books. I can only think that this book is meant to be. And with the dream team of Hiroki Seki Sumi-e artist, and Dr. Stephanie Delaney, master birder (in my opinion) — I am flying high. And yes, bird pun intended.