Ornithomancy

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Ornithomancy began before I even realized it. Birds have been acting as earthly emissaries of the afterlife for thousands of years.

Cardinals are said to represent spirits of our deceased loved ones. Owls bring wisdom and accompany transitional periods. Crows and ravens protect us from things we can’t always see. A flock of geese brings good luck. There are examples from countless cultures of the way we interact with birds, and what their flight patterns and behaviors mean. My relationship with them began when I lost three people in my life in close succession.

The first was a friend I’d known since childhood. He passed unexpectedly and that night, a blue heron flew over my house (which was nowhere near water). The second was a former teacher I was very close with; her husband had passed from cancer years before and she had been diagnosed with a different type. The day after she died, I drove under three power lines in a row and each had a pair of doves resting on it, together. The final loss was a new friend, who I’d become very close with in a short time. I’d begun studying for my MFA just before he passed away, and birds started appearing everywhere. The more I learned about their spiritual connections with us and with the underworld, the more I felt drawn to them. It was as if they were helping me find a way through.

I observed them all around me, in the physical world but also in my dreams, as I wrote this collection. They’ll guide you too, not just through love and loss but through a physical journey. The bird guides in Ornithomancy will take you to the Underworld to reimagine the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. They’ll fly with you to mars to pay homage to the Mars Rover Opportunity. They’ll watch over you as you drive a long stretch of highway, just as they did for me.

A Note on Poetry and Art

One of the biggest themes in my mind when it came to publishing this book was accessibility. Poetry has been gatekept for too long as a genre that’s only for academics or artists, and the insta poetry movement has not done enough to represent the genre in a real or meaningful way.

There’s so much more to global poetry than lyric or haiku, and so much less to be afraid of. There’s no such thing as a wrong interpretation — whatever a poem means to you is what it was supposed to mean.

So Ornithomancy has become a bit of a collaborative project, and I’ve invited a series of artists and creators to read the book and offer their interpretation of the work in their own medium. From digital art and drawing to sculpture and screenprinting, the magic of these connections is meant to bring people together. I hope the variety of artist interpretations attached to the project will help us share the work further, and help those new to poetry understand that their reading is meaningful, no matter what they take away from the book.

Support the Movement

Help us make poetry more accessible! You can purchase the book, and all the artwork and merch attached to the project at our online store.