For the Love of Words -- and BIRDS

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit lovely Liz at Elizabeth Steinglass for Roundup.

I'm especially excited to be here today because it's my birthday! Cheesecake for everyone!!!

As a gift to myself, I've invited my kind, talented poet-friend Amy Ludwig VanDerwater to come talk poetry and birds with me! Isn't The Poem Farm one of the most wonder-filled websites ever? I love learning from Amy and especially enjoy her fun, wise, gentle voice. And now readers of all ages have more Amy to love: please join me in celebrating the release of her latest book EVERY DAY BIRDS, now in flight from Orchard/Scholastic, with illustrations by Dylan Metrano.

Welcome, Amy!!

Please share a childhood memory that includes a bird or birds.

I remember caring for a robin with a hurt wing when I was four or five years old. Although I was sad that the bird was injured, I was happy to have it close and still in a box, where I could watch and “care for it” under the guidance of my mom and dad. I think that this bird died but also remember that my parents told me it had healed and flown away. They were gentle people, and I was young. This story reminds me of the beautiful and true book, THE DEAD BIRD, written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Remy Charlip.

Birds often appear in poems. Why do you think poets are attracted to birds, and what prompted YOU to write about birds?

Well, the fact that ‘bird’ rhymes with ‘word’ is quite compelling! Seriously, I have come to appreciate birds through the example of my husband Mark, who knows so much about these feathery creatures. From him, I have learned that we enlarge our worlds by the company we keep. Our passions often grow from passions of those we love. This is why I believe that passionate teachers matter greatly – they inspire fascination and curiosity in children.

As for why poets like birds so much, I believe that the glory of flight draws us in. Birds are small and mighty. They travel, and they make swooping motions in the sky, just as we make swooping marks on paper, not quite sure of where we will go. Birds and writing: both speak to the free part of our spirits.


What species of bird do you most identify with (OR: wish you were more like)?
I would like to think that I am something cute and tough, like a chickadee. But others might say I am like an annoying parrot who keeps on talking when I should be quiet!


What species of bird do you see every day at The Poem Farm?
We see many chickadees, tufted titmice, tree sparrows, cardinals, and a few kinds of woodpeckers. (red bellied, hairy, pileated, and downy) . We have blue jays, goldfinches, and many red tailed hawks. We see vultures and crows and others too. I love to watch our feeders, and I am thankful to Mark for keeping them full. When I am home alone writing, these small birds are my friends.

Anything else you would like to share?

Two not-to-miss bird picture books include SUBWAY SPARROW written and illustrated by Leyla Torres and WELCOME, BROWN BIRD, written by Mary Lyn Ray and illustrated by Peter Sylvada. I love stories about birds; they are endlessly interesting and mysterious.

If I were a bird, I would fly to Alabama to give you a birthday hug! Thank you, my dear friend, for having me here today. xoxo

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Wasn't that fun?! Click here for an older post of Valerie Worth poems about birds. And now, an original bird poem that appears in my book of poems for adults THE SKY BETWEEN US:

Life Without Birds

You appear just before dawn

to ask what it’s like

without you. I push through

the quicksand, gauging

the weight of forest

as it presses against my body,

a whole country of spruce,

pine, and cedar surrounding me.

I don’t want to burden you

with what you’ve done,

so I say I miss the birds.

Is there any deeper truth?

No wings flashing from

blackberry brambles,

no careful nest in the eaves,

no graceful, raucous Vs.

The loss of song

is the part I won’t admit,

no matter how tenderly

you press your fingers

against my eyelids.

- Irene Latham
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Hear me read it on Soundcloud! (For some reason the embed code isn't working...grr)