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BIRD CITY, AMERICAN EYE

Poems and Proems by Ahrend Torrey

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In the stillness of the heart in flight, we find poems colored with mindful observations: birds, humanity, relationship. Set in the lagoons, rivers, neighborhoods, gardens, cafés, marshlands, and highways of southern Louisiana.

“Where might we be, or not be, without them?” (“Near the Mississippi …”). Poems inhabited with hummingbird, swan, egret, stork, crow, duck, mother bird’s beak-of-seeds, starlings, chickens, sanderlings, blue jay, heron, house sparrow, hawk and robin, white ibis.

“like soft rain, / to wake you, to console / your pounding heart, / … / Listen, / he said, / become these crickets.” (“I Asked a Tibetan Monk …”). Gratitude to replace annoyance, gratitude for what didn’t happen, gratitude for knowing how it feels to be loved, for the never uttered before moment. Time burning, and drifting into the ephemeral. “silence and wind dance together / a solemn dance” (“Trying to Save Her …”).

Beauty in knowing and not knowing. Sensitivity to sound and rhythm, daring in forms, Bird City, American Eye offers a place for quiet reflection and heartfelt action, a place where “another still and untouched thing / feels love.” (“I Throw Rocks …”).