Some Birds
Some Birds by George Held
(Goldfish Press, $14.95)
“When, on my March way to Sunday/ School, they whistled and cried in the marsh:/ the first migrants to arrive and build nests.”
After more than nine years, this will be my last review for At The Inkwell for the foreseeable future. I would like to thank everyone who took the time to read my reviews, all the poets gracious enough to share their words with me, and my editor Monique Antonette Lewis for her support. My first At The Inkwell review came out in 2015 for a book by George Held. How fitting then to mark the end of an era by reviewing his latest poetry collection, Some Birds.
I was thrilled to see that this book was released by a local press here in Seattle. Goldfish Press is run by Koon Woon, a poet of almost legendary stature in this corner of the Pacific Northwest. Not only did Woon publish Some Birds, he also collaborated with George Held on the content. You see, each page of the book contains a short poem by Held about a different bird and a corresponding picture of the same bird selected by Koon Woon. This combination of poem and image makes the book more than your typical collection of verse. Often it feels like you are paging through an important work of ornithology.
Held’s book is filled with great descriptions of birds that make these images come to life. The boat-tailed grackle “in their stiff black prom gowns,/ strut mannishly across the lawn.” Writing about the wood thrush Held writes, “’it’s been decades since this melodious/ lord last visited the northwest corner/ of my realm.” It is clear that Held feels at home with these birds and knows them as well as many of us know our neighbors. He has spent decades observing birds and his familiarity leads to some touching moments in this collection when he recalls a particular season in his life and the bird that was somehow attached to it.
I thoroughly enjoyed the rhythms Held employs in Some Birds. There are inspired bursts of alliteration and assonance, “members of the college/ of Cardinals, this bird is dressed in red.” And then there are the quiet, subtle rhymes, “woodpeckers are often in view, in fact/ I have seen quite a few, on my fruit trees,/ I have heard quite a few too as they drill.” These fine flourishes go a long way towards expressing movement, whether it is the fluttering of a wing or the auditory power of a bird call. Held also does a splendid job of connecting the birds to our culture. In one poem he references Robinson Jeffers, in another Elizabeth Taylor. Human beings have a deep connection to our avian brethren, if for no other reason than we must share the planet with them, and these cultural references are a reflection of that.
Some Birds is filled with interesting facts on such topics as the diet of the goldfinch and the bill of the pelican. For a variety of reasons, it was an enlightening read and much of the reason for this, I believe, is Held’s passion for his subject. This was a major takeaway of the book for me, the passionate attainment of a lifetime of knowledge. This book is a testament to Held’s. And as we all move forward in our lives, day by day, what new knowledge or passion awaits us? I can’t wait to find out.
Benjamin Schmitt
Benjamin Schmitt is the author of four books, most recently The Saints of Capitalism and Soundtrack to a Fleeting Masculinity. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Sojourners, Antioch Review, The Good Men Project, Hobart, Columbia Review, Spillway, and elsewhere. A co-founder of Pacifica Writers’ Workshop, he has also written articles for The Seattle Times and At The Inkwell. He lives in Seattle with his wife and children.