Poetry and nature essays could be highly effective methods for folks to attach with the pure world. A brand new anthology launched in January, titled Daybreak Songs: A Birdwatcher’s Subject Information to the Poetics of Migration and edited by Jamie Okay. Reaser and J. Drew Lanham, options lyrical reflections on {our relationships} with birds. The guide’s launch coincides with the thirtieth anniversary of Worldwide (World) Migratory Chicken Day, which was co-founded in 1993 by Reaser. Proceeds from the guide will go towards American Chicken Conservancy’s Conservation and Justice Fellowship Program.
“Daybreak Songs is greater than a guide,” Reaser mentioned. “It’s an invocation — a calling collectively of birds and birdwatchers throughout various landscapes and indefinite identities. It’s a celebration of what unites us on the edges of nature and human nature. It’s, partially, Emily Dickenson’s ‘Hope [being] the factor with feathers.’”
The anthology comprises works from 60 writers, a few of whom are well-established of their area, and others who “have had fewer alternatives to voice their tales and sentiments,” Reaser mentioned. “Considered one of our intentions in bringing Daybreak Songs collectively was to amplify such voices, to ask the lesser-known authors onto a perch from which they may very well be higher heard.”
It’s divided into 4 sections: “To Know,” “To Marvel,” “To Lament,” and “To Rejoice.” Every explores the intersection between nature and human nature by a unique lens.
Guide echoes the ‘magic of a daybreak refrain’
In “To Know,” poets write about their private relationships with birds, with some poems centering the sensation of greeting freshly returned migrants and others merely expressing pleasure at watching swallows fly or herons hunt. “To Marvel,” in the meantime, comprises works expressing questions that birds encourage within the writers, and “To Lament” permits house to mourn species declines and the deaths of particular person birds alike. The anthology ends on an uplifting observe with “To Rejoice,” which comprises joyous odes to the items birds give us.
“This guide brings collectively a range of uplifted human voices — echoing the magic of a daybreak refrain,” mentioned Michael J. Parr, president of ABC. “It’s an clever celebration in service of birds, of nature, of human nature.”
Daybreak Songs will straight contribute to empowering the subsequent technology of fowl conservationists because of Reaser and Lanham’s beneficiant resolution to donate proceeds to ABC’s lately launched Fellowship Program. By means of scientific analysis, neighborhood engagement, and storytelling, ABC’s Fellows discover the interconnectedness of fowl conservation and environmental justice. Purposes are actively sought from a range of people, together with folks traditionally with out voice in environmental justice and conservation dialogues.
“We’re honored that Drew Lanham and Jamie Reaser have chosen to assist our Conservation and Justice Fellowship program by the proceeds from Daybreak Songs,” mentioned Naamal De Silva, chief range officer at ABC. “Launched in 2022, our program is new, so their religion in its potential means an ideal deal. Their selection will deliver extra consideration to this system and to present fellows.”
Daybreak Songs is obtainable for buy now on Amazon, Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, and different retailers. And you’ll study extra and have interaction with others having fun with the poems on the guide’s Fb web page and YouTube channel.
