"Urban Nature"-poems about wildlife in the city, Milkweed Editions, 2000 includes "bird" poems, recent realistic American poetry including "A Guide to Urban Birds": parking lot gulls, highway hawks, & dump swallows; "Red Bird" opening lines "Now I feel safe/I've gotten my cardinal back again"; "Swifts at Evening", a shape poem resembling a cloud of Chimney Swifts funneling down into a chimney.
"Shared Sightings", an anthology of bird poems edited by Sheila Golburgh Johnson, John Daniel & Co., Santa Barbara, 1955. Titles such as "Roger Tory Peterson and I", "Grackles"--opening lines "Attentive to the morning light/arrange along telephone lines/quarter notes on a staff/of bird gossip medley." "Art of Birds" by Pablo Neruda, translated from the Spanish into English, Univ. of Texas Press, 1985. In my opinion the finest recent bird poems including poems about real and imaginary birds: "Harris Hawk", & "Greater Tinkler"--"The tinkler is transparent/cannot be seen against the crystals,/and is invisible when it flies:/ it is a bubble of the wind,/it is an icy fugue,/it is a crystal palpitation." There are several editions of this book with illustrations. The U. Of TX Press edition is translated by Jack Schmitt with illustrations by Jack Unruh. (Sketches and drawings) Another edition is same title "Art of Birds" but both Spanish & English, translated by Jack Schmitt illustrations by Chiappe, Llobet, & Mata. (Realistic art work in color). Lynx Edicions, 2002. Try a used bookstore. Look for "Through the Year with Birds & Poets", copyright 1900! An anthology with the golden oldies such as Whitman's "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" and "Birds" from Nature by Ralph Emerson in couplets: "...All of worth and beauty set/Gems in Natures cabinet." There are more. Fred Lesher, LaCrosse __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Protect your identity with Yahoo! Mail AddressGuard http://antispam.yahoo.com/whatsnewfree
