Here is Jonathan Skinner on bird sounds - I mean his letter gets factually
serious part way down - a serious and, I suspect, helpful student here.
From: Jonathan Skinner <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 16:44:16 -0500
Subject: Re: help--translation query
Dear Stephen et al,
And thanks for mentioning this. I think you may be recalling the warbler
poems I read in SF. It's a constraint-based/intuitive project with rules
drawn from bird identification.
There's very little actual bird stuff in Political Cactuses--which is
mostly, well, cactuses, along with a monarch butterfly poem, soundscape
poems, ecological sonnets, and the extractive notebook sequence, Mined.
Several of those warbler pieces were printed recently by Tim Atkins's online
mag Onedit: www.onedit.net
And right now the warblers are invading my ongoing Wetlands manuscript.
There's lots of other poets working with birds right now. Peter O'Leary is
an accomplished birder, and this experience often works its way into his
rather intense poems. Geraldine Monk did a cool little sound and
dialect-based thing recently, She Kept Birds, with Slack Buddha Press (La
Perruque Editions). Every issue of ecopoetics has included some bird poems
(Douglas Oliver, Paige Menton, Lisa Forrest). But the most intense volume
of bird poetry, result of a lifetime of dedication, has to be Jack Collom's
Exchanges of Earth and Sky, just out with Fish Drum. Fly, don't run, to get
this . . .
Palm Press does have a website: www.palmpress.org
Couldn't find a term for birds puffing out their feathers to stay warm. I
imagine it's something like "puffing out their feathers." There is
"pterylosis": the arrangement and locations of feathers on the body. And
"preening invitation": unusual practice by some species of bowing head and
ruffling feathers to invite the other to preen it . . .
Also, I'd like to hear back from Joanna Boulter, re the English blackbird.
I've long been curious about this bird and its song(s). One of the great
poets of birds, in a Messain-like intensely Zukofskian manner, Ronald
Johnson, begins his early Book of the Green Man with an evocation of the
English blackbird:
"Tchink, Tchink. Tsee!
Then low,
continuous warbles
pure as a Thrush."
I was shocked at the comparison with the thrush, since our (American)
blackbirds are hardly so musical (CONK Laree!) though they can be great
mimics. (They have more in common with grackles.) Of course, "musical"
must be a fairly subjective term . . .
Incidentally (or not), I've got an essay on "spires" 37 and 38 of Johnson's
epic poem ARK: Prospero's Songs to Ariel, and Ariel's Songs to
Prospero--work collaged from Peterson's Field Guides. I'll be presenting a
bit of this material at Poets House in NYC this coming Thursday, March 16.
Best,
Jonathan
ECOPOETICS
c/o J. Skinner, Editor
106 Huntington Ave.
Buffalo, NY 14214
http://www.ecopoetics.org
[log in to unmask]
> Jonathan Skinner is a very good poet with a recent book from Palm Press that
> is devoted to birds and their sounds that fly up and own down the flight
> corridor over Buffalo New York. I am too lazy to fetch it off my shelves,
> but I will copy this to Jonathan, as well as suggest you visit the Palm
> Press website (assuming they have one). If not, I am sure he can direct you
> the rest of the way.
> He has a good ear.
>
> Stephen V
>
>> Feral macaws is just too majestic a concept.
>>
>> I wanted to ask, apropos an earlier thread, whether anyone could point to a
>> poet working in birdsong and birdlore with the same kind of intensity that
>> Messiaen brought to music?
>>
>> P
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to
>>> poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
>>> Behalf Of Joanna Boulter
>>> Sent: 10 March 2006 23:16
>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>> Subject: Re: help--translation query
>>>
>>> To my mind, there's no bird to beat the English blackbird,
>>> for song and handsome looks; Shakespeare's "ousel-cock so
>>> black of hue / With orange tawny bill". But it's a strange
>>> thing -- I've lived in various parts of this country, from
>>> the south-west to the north-east where we are now, and I'll
>>> swear those blackbirds make regional variations in their song.
>>>
>>> By the way, there's a flock of feral macaws up in the dales
>>> about 30 miles from here. I saw them once, and it seemed a
>>> huge and magical privilege, like being visited by strangers
>>> from another planet.
>>>
>>> joanna
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Jill Jones" <[log in to unmask]>
>>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>> Sent: Friday, March 10, 2006 10:56 PM
>>> Subject: Re: help--translation query
>>>
>>>
>>>> Hi Mark,
>>>>
>>>> Yes, I guess they are noisy. Never thought of it but now I recall,
>>>> European cities seem so much quieter on the bird front.
>>>>
>>>> Last night I came home as a whole pile (flock?) of parrots
>>> - most likely
>>>> lorrikeets - were squawking in the tree across the road,
>>> just on dusk.
>>>>
>>>> In our garden, we had magpies nesting in the jacaranda one
>>> year, until
>>>> they found out that it lost its leaves and therefore their
>>> cover, so they
>>>> went back to the more traditional and evergreen gum tree
>>> two doors up. But
>>>> they visit us all the time (and shit on our paving). We
>>> also get nearly
>>>> everyday or seasonally, said parrots (lorrikeets and rosellas),
>>>> currawongs, new holland honeyeaters, welcome swallows,
>>> silvereyes (such
>>>> lovely little birds), the australian ravens we call crows.
>>> Even a sacred
>>>> kingfisher once. Also, unfortunately, all the pesky exotics such as
>>>> sparrows, starlings, pigeons and noisy mynahs.
>>>>
>>>> Some of the above, and others, are mentioned on this site,
>>> including some
>>>> of their noisy calls: http://www.anbg.gov.au/birds/birds.html
>>>>
>>>> So, can get real noisy.
>>>>
>>>> Is it 'ruffle' their feathers?
>>>>
>>>> And 'having a lend'? To have someone on, take the piss.
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> Jill
>>>>
>>>> On Saturday, March 11, 2006, at 01:37 AM, Jill Jones wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi Mark,
>>>>>
>>>>> First of all, what's a grackle? I assume you're not having a lend.
>>>>>
>>>>> But I would be interested in the correct name for the term
>>> as well. There
>>>>> does seem to be a thing about poets and birds.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm a lazy bird watcher myself and rarely know the correct
>>> word for
>>>>> ornithological things. But I notice them all the same.
>>> Tonight, there was
>>>>> a real racket across the street as I was coming home, ooh,
>>> about 7ish.
>>>>> Most likely parrots of some kind. I couldn't see them but
>>> they were,
>>>>> obviously, apparent.
>>>>>
>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>> Jill
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Saturday, March 11, 2006, at 01:06 AM, Mark Weiss wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> OK, I need some feedback from birdwatchers. In the winter
>>> birds puff out
>>>>>> their feathers fro warmth. Is there/are there a
>>> term/terms for this?
>>>>>> From the scientific to the colloquial.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I realize this question is likely to inspire some general
>>> levity, not to
>>>>>> say tom-foolery (origin?), which I'd appreciate as much
>>> as the next
>>>>>> guy/gal, but I really could use the help on this one.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> A tribeof grackles has taken up residence in the park outside my
>>>>>> window--maybe 25 males. Quiet so far--probably waiting
>>> for a critical
>>>>>> mass to build up. Oh lucky me.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Mark
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________________
>>>>> Jill Jones
>>>>>
>>>>> Latest books:
>>>>> Broken/Open. Available from Salt Publishing
>>>>> http://www.saltpublishing.com/books/smp/1844710416.htm
>>>>>
>>>>> Where the Sea Burns. Wagtail Series. Picaro Press
>>>>> PO Box 853, Warners Bay, NSW, 2282. [log in to unmask]
>>>>>
>>>>> Struggle and radiance: ten commentaries (Wild Honey Press)
>>>>> http://www.wildhoneypress.com
>>>>>
>>>>> web site: http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~jpjones
>>>>> blog1: Ruby Street http://rubystreet.blogspot.com/
>>>>> blog2: Latitudes http://itudes.blogspot.com/
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________________
>>>> Jill Jones
>>>>
>>>> Latest books:
>>>> Broken/Open. Available from Salt Publishing
>>>> http://www.saltpublishing.com/books/smp/1844710416.htm
>>>>
>>>> Where the Sea Burns. Wagtail Series. Picaro Press
>>>> PO Box 853, Warners Bay, NSW, 2282. [log in to unmask]
>>>>
>>>> Struggle and radiance: ten commentaries (Wild Honey Press)
>>>> http://www.wildhoneypress.com
>>>>
>>>> web site: http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~jpjones
>>>> blog1: Ruby Street http://rubystreet.blogspot.com/
>>>> blog2: Latitudes http://itudes.blogspot.com/
>>>
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