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lizaroo71's review
4.0
I love birds and everything about them from how they build their nests, to how they attract mates, to their beautiful songs. I found this book by happenstance when searching for another book on my library's website (I don't even recall the original title for which I was searching). I was even happier when I picked this up at the library and saw that Billy Collins is the editor.
Collins pointedly lets the reader the know he ignored such classics as Poe's "The Raven" and Dickens' "Hope." The poems are categorized by various birds and an illustration is provided with a brief explanation of where the species is found and other fun facts.
The poems by Juliana Gray are stand outs for me. There are many poems with beautiful notes on not just the beauty of birds, but also the ingenuity of birds as well.
I took my time reading it and I am so glad I came across it.
Collins pointedly lets the reader the know he ignored such classics as Poe's "The Raven" and Dickens' "Hope." The poems are categorized by various birds and an illustration is provided with a brief explanation of where the species is found and other fun facts.
The poems by Juliana Gray are stand outs for me. There are many poems with beautiful notes on not just the beauty of birds, but also the ingenuity of birds as well.
I took my time reading it and I am so glad I came across it.
annebennett1957's review
3.0
Though I am a backyard bird watcher and enjoy learning about birds I discovered that I am not a bird poems poetry lover. I found most of the poems in this book tedious and frankly not that well-written. I got to the point where I would look at the illustration, read the caption for the illustration, note the poet for the poem associated with that type of bird and only read it if I had heard of the poet before. My favorite poem wasn't even part of the collection but mentioned in the introduction by Billy Collins: "The Swan at Edgewater Park" by Ruth Swartz (Read it yourself here: https://www.americanpoems.com/poets/ruth-schwartz/the-swan-at-edgewater-park/ )
For my tanka-poetry review of this book and others: https://headfullofbooks.blogspot.com/2022/04/tanka-poetry-reviews.html
For my tanka-poetry review of this book and others: https://headfullofbooks.blogspot.com/2022/04/tanka-poetry-reviews.html
mark_lm's review
4.0
A nice poetry anthology edited by BC with bird paintings by D.A. Sibley. 113 poems with MI = 12.4.
fieldofhats's review
2 stars. This isn’t a bad collection, and in fact the message seems quite good; exposing people to various types of birds through gorgeous illustrations and poetry seems like a fantastic idea. For me, though, it was really dull. I DNF’d this book after about 50 pages because I couldn’t bring myself to read anymore. No hate to Billy Collins, David Allen Sibley, or any of the poets who feature in the book — it’s just not for me. I love certain classic poets and poems, but these didn’t do it for me. I was interested in this book because I loved Collins’ Poetry 180 anthology and I just love his work, and it was worth giving it a try, but not worth it to finish.
If you like birds and have the attention span for classic poetry, you might like this. Otherwise, probably best to look elsewhere.
If you like birds and have the attention span for classic poetry, you might like this. Otherwise, probably best to look elsewhere.
debbiecuddy's review
5.0
I especially enjoyed this book because it gave me comfort to read it during my Mom's final illness. I began reading it the day she was placed on hospice care and finished it today, the day of her funeral. It added to the celebration of her life because she passed on to me her enjoyment of bird watching and her love of reading. This a beautiful collection of poems and artwork that I know I will return to and read again.
katrinky's review
5.0
Oh OK, let's put poetry, birds, and paintings all in one book and see if Katie's heart physically explodes or not. Favorites so far:
George Green, on Frigatebirds: "They're bullies and the way the feed is gross..."
Mary Oliver (OH, Mary Oliver), "Wild Geese": "You do not have to be good./ You do not have to walk on your knees a hundred miles, repenting./ You only have to let the soft animal of your body/ love what it loves."
Robert Cording, "Peregrine Falcon, New York City," about an ad man who puts the selling of stuff on hold to watch a hunting bird slice by outside his window.
Walt Whitman, "The Dalliance of Eagles": "Four beating wings, two beaks, a swirling mass tight grappling,/ In tumbling turning clustering loops, straight downward falling..."
Sylvia Plath, "Pheasant:" "You said you would kill it this morning./ Do not kill it. It startles me still,/ The jut of that odd, dark head, pacing/ Through the uncut grass on the elm's hill."
Dear Billy Collins,
Thank you for knowing the simple depths of my poet's little hipster heart.
Love,
Katie
George Green, on Frigatebirds: "They're bullies and the way the feed is gross..."
Mary Oliver (OH, Mary Oliver), "Wild Geese": "You do not have to be good./ You do not have to walk on your knees a hundred miles, repenting./ You only have to let the soft animal of your body/ love what it loves."
Robert Cording, "Peregrine Falcon, New York City," about an ad man who puts the selling of stuff on hold to watch a hunting bird slice by outside his window.
Walt Whitman, "The Dalliance of Eagles": "Four beating wings, two beaks, a swirling mass tight grappling,/ In tumbling turning clustering loops, straight downward falling..."
Sylvia Plath, "Pheasant:" "You said you would kill it this morning./ Do not kill it. It startles me still,/ The jut of that odd, dark head, pacing/ Through the uncut grass on the elm's hill."
Dear Billy Collins,
Thank you for knowing the simple depths of my poet's little hipster heart.
Love,
Katie
carlydbar's review
3.0
I loved that this collection was varied poets, all with a unique style and preference for writing poetry. I also loved that the subject happened to be one of my favorites - birds. I think I was hoping for a bit more with this. The artwork was stunning, but the poetry was more about just observations and after 250 pages of observations I don't care what bird I'm looking at, the colors might be different but the descriptions get a bit repetitive. Overall enjoyable, although it took my some time to really digest through it. It's a pretty thick collection.