A Lyrical Guide to Washington State Birds
“Birdbrains: A Lyrical Guide to Washington State Birds,” is a one-of-a-kind Washington State bird guide. The anthology includes original pen and ink sumi-e paintings by artist Hiroko Seki, bird fact notes, and short poems/stories/memoir. Poems/prose are bird-focused rather than human centered. The bird notes include information about song, call, mating rituals, habitat, migration, climate, dark comedy, and fun facts.
This month we feature a poem by Susan Rich, the editor of “Birdbrains”, an excerpt from the bird fact notes, which are written by Stephanie Delaney, and one of Hiroko Seki’s paintings. Enjoy!
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Northern Flicker – Colaptes auratus (excerpt)
Description: The Northern Flicker is a medium-sized woodpecker slightly larger than an American Robin. They are an eye-catching bird with a long black bill, gray head, and bright red stripe at the nape of the head or cheek.Their chests are chestnut with distinctive black dots all over, topped by a bold black bib.
Voice: The call of the Northern Flicker is a loud “wicka-wicka-wicka.”
The Northern Flicker Reconsidered
If a bird could become
a poem, and why not –
promenade through wayward
stanzas, lift their couplets
of wings – what then? A high
wik-a, wik-a alchemical spell:
a cry of the private and unprintable.
Could a flicker know heartbreak?
Practice self-restraint?
Their fashion leans bold – polka dots
and stripes, bright cinnamon
to morning fog hues. The male,
handsome, with his patch of mustache
I’d like to become their lifelong mate
should I return as a bird – a celebrated
Shad-spirit, Cotton-rump –
with the longest bird tongue
in North America
This ode to plurality –
this epic boundless – then –
cross-stitched together
on the pages of a Northwest sky.
~ Susan Rich
Susan Rich, editor of “Birdbrains”, is the author of six collections of poetry and co-editor of two prose anthologies. The recipient of the PEN USA Award and the Times Literary Supplement Award (London), she lives and writes in West Seattle.
to Army War College fellows at the University of Washington.
