The Whisk and Whir of Wings, The Ridgeway Press, 2016

The Whisk & Whir of Wings

An avid birder as well as an accomplished poet, Kresge Arts in Detroit Literary Fellow Terry Blackhawk has selected favorite “bird poems” from her four previous volumes and collected them in The Whisk and Whir of Wings. Grounded in hours of observation, work as an Audubon volunteer, and encounter with the natural world, the poems explore boundaries between the ecological and the psychological. As they travel from backyard to mountainsides, they invite the reader to join in pursuit of the hidden, the wild, the edge of language, what is beyond the frame. Ecstatic or meditative, watchful or wry, Terry Blackhawk’s voice owes something to both Emily Dickinson and Elizabeth Bishop. This new collection celebrates the acceptance of change but also fulfills the human need for “perch and purchase.” The “whisk and whir” of these poems’ memorable music take us to swamp and woodland, beach and river, Ecuador, Detroit, Key West, into the heart of loss, memory, and love-wherever wing beats “exalt” or “disturb” our air.

Available now from The Museum Store, $10.00