Wingbeat Atlas
Two bird lovers, a poet and a photographer, collaborate in Wingbeat Atlas to bring poems and images together to celebrate our citizens of the sky. Award-winning poet Lucy Griffith shares her attention to detail, songlike lyrics and whimsey in these poems about Blue Grosbeaks, Loggerhead Shrikes, owls, hawks and hummingbirds. Sparrows and tiny wrens get their due as well. Ken Butler’s accompanying images show the birds in their habitats―freshly active and expressive. Poem and image combine to give the reader an immersive avian experience.
As the well-known international birder Victor Emanuel shares in his foreword: “Lucy Griffith's poems are a wonderful addition to the collection of poems about birds. Many of them contain lines about the behavior of birds, how they fly, what they eat, how they court a mate. These descriptions connect the reader in new ways with the bird. With all creatures, habitat is important. By often mentioning various plants, the bird’s habitat is evoked. Kenneth Butler’s excellent images of each bird highlighted in a poem add a fresh layer of enjoyment…Lucy's poems are brief and potent, then close with a moving, beautiful ending.”
Lucy Griffith’s birds flit, flap, skid, hover, row, drift, and crash-land. Her poems expertly detail our ubiquitous companions of the air, calling attention to their structures and miraculous winged feats above us as we gladly renew our appreciation of them. Kenneth Butler’s exquisite photo images accompany Griffith’s poems, forming a delightful partnership with her observations and narratives. Sit with this small volume an hour and you will find yourself refreshed in spirit, more knowledgeable about birds, and assuredly in awe of both the subject and the artists who fashioned this gem of a book.
Jan Seale, 2012 Texas Poet Laureate author of Valley Ark: Life Along the Rio and Particulars: poems of smallness