From where do these poems come?
The second poem in the chapbook, (serpent, door, eye), grew from a snake-eviction experience one Friday evening, and questions about perception. I marveled at the strength the snake’s body evinced as it wrapped itself around my wrist. What does it see, I wondered. How does it sense? What sequence of events has brought me to this place, now, standing in the grass with a snake in my hands, the sun hovering just over the horizon, cicadas thrumming all around?
And of course the poem rumbled around in my subconscious for months after the incident. What took me back to that time and place? Who can say? Perhaps a flash of light through the oak’s branches, rain dripping from the metal roof, or the fragrance of burning juniper. I never know, but it slid out, somehow, onto the page.
The book is available here to U.S. residents for $7.50, shipping included.
Non-U.S. purchasers can order it directly from me by emailing aBirdtoWhistle@yahoo.com.
O at the Edges 
It adds such depth and feels such a privilege to hear these insights – the poem within a poem. This is something I have had a ‘half-poem’ written in my mind for a while now, which I am hoping will slide it’s completion onto a page sometime soon.
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Some poems marinate, some fester. Some emerge from nowhere. I wish I knew how and why. Well, almost. If I knew, I probably couldn’t write.
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Some make you feel like you’re wrestling a bear, others like a snake encircling your wrist, others still like you’re trying to photograph a rare and active animal…. I like the ones that emerge and sidle up to you like a familiar pet.
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I enjoy those that pour out, whole, in a rush. Those are special, but I’m also wary of them. 🙂
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“cicadas thrumming all around…” oh that cicada sound… like a high pitched windstorm on a hot afternoon. I can feel the heat of a humid Japanese day on my skin as the platypleura kaempferi whirrs its high pitched song all afternoon long. Those P.K.s are noisy little buggers!
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I generally like the sound, but there are times when it gets on my nerves, like six weeks into it…
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The sustained noise is practically unbearable at times, indeed!
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I evicted a rat snake from my living room. Used a broom as the serpent offered objections in the forms of hissing, striking an upright pose like a cobra, and baring fangs. I respect your snake-whisperer approach.
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I don’t know what possessed me. I just reached down and grabbed it without thinking. Then I apologized for the intrusion, and moved it along…
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Placed my order! Can’t wait! ❤
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Thank you, Carrie!
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