Birdbook 1: Towns, Parks, Gardens & Woodland
£10.00 + postage, April 2011, 158pp
Dr. F says:
"Poets and artists continue to be drawn to these hollow-boned sons and daughters of dinosaurs, their eccentricities and foibles, their intricate designs and virtuoso aerobatic feats that exceed the capabilities of all present technology. And since birds, poetry and illustration are as sure an alchemy as salt, mercury and sulphur, I, Dr Fulminare, have brought these three elements together in perfect unison, producing an array of contemporary work to satisfy eye, ear and imagination!"
Featuring poems and artwork by:
Rachael Allen, Rowyda Amin, Hannah Bagshaw, Becky Barnicoat, Simon Barraclough, Julia Bird, Niall Campbell, Michael Chance, Tom Chivers, Hanna Terese Christiansson, Monika Cilmi, John Clegg, Dave Coates, Phil Cooper, Lois Cordelia, Lorna Crabbe, Caroline Crew, Nia Davies, Lizzy Denning, Isobel Dixon, Philip Elbourne, Dai George, Matthew Gregory, Cliff Hammett, Aiko Harman, Emily Hasler, Holly Hopkins, Nicholas Hughes, i-lib, Kirsten Irving, Andrew Jamison, Amy Key, Judith Lal, Alexandra Lazar, Natalie Lazarus, Katherine Leedale, Roddy Lumsden, Edward Mackay, Marion McCready, Siofra McSherry, Matt Merritt, Kate Parkinson, Saroj Patel, Kate Potts, Richard Price, Fiona Purves, Declan Ryan, Bethany Settle, Jon Stone, Jennie Webber, James Wilkes and Chrissy Williams.
Samples:
We Meet by a Charm of Crossbills
The blood-birds kiss the air
as they fall from cone to cone,
their warp of mandibles
freeing the fruits, shucking the shells.
Below them, the sky is flecked
with drifting scales.
You whisper 'crossbills'
and a bird rises in my throat.
You taste of rust and nails.
The Douglas-firs hold up the fiery bells,
their thick bull-necks, their forked tails.
My skin is a spectrogram of your breath.
You spell words with symbols on my neck,
the blood-bird song a warning in our heads.
Marion McCready
Profiles of some of the artists: