KNYGA Carol Ann Davis Songbird

Resonant poems give form to the paradoxes of embodiment and interiorityUtilizing the short lyric poem in long sequence, Songbird addresses matters both urgent and ancient: what it is to grow from a child into an adult, how to remain inside one's body, what it means to open the mouth and sing. Guided by the images, senses, and sounds provided to her by the natural world, the poet invents a stuttering natal language to approach the unsayable aspects of interior life. In doing so, the poems collectively trouble the binaries that beset modern existence: the simultaneous push-pull of sexual desire; the interior and exterior landscapes that shape our perceptual fields; the reckoning of violence with beauty; the human need for both permanency and flight. Songbird is a daring and necessary book.[sample poem]let me take something smallbetween my teethpiece of straw meantto signify your bodywhich was given freely to meor threads of methat are wheat strandsalways these small bartersfor a price would I give youthe edge that isyour absence for my presenceand you between my teethfor the price of grassthe price of all grassesso say Ito youin prayerI wouldswallow wholewhat gave you in part