EXCERPT

We wanted everything. Fingers. A fingernail.

Palm or fist driving a stick into the earth

marking a pit or grave. A garter snake. A field of grass

sun-bleached in a summer without rain.

Blue feather in an owl’s beak. Her wind-bent wing.

Dead on the side of the road. Bird singing high, unseen.

Talons. Beak. To wake up with a song sung without teeth.

A language of our own and a fishbone currency.

A garden overgrown with mint and yarrow,

lavender and peony. Gods. Mothers. Moons.

To make good of wind. Rot quiet under weeds.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Suzanne Honda (she/her), a Michigan born poet and teaching artist, is probably outside in her wildflower garden right now - unless, of course, it's winter, in which case she's watering her massive spider plant and playing with her two cats. Always down for a dance party, she's also guilty of consuming far too much crystallized ginger and binging old episodes of Buffy. A kid at heart still rocking one baby tooth, Suzanne is published in Bear River Review and SWWIM Every Day, with work forthcoming in Soundings East and The Hyacinth Review.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT WHEN WE WERE BIRDS

In his poem, “Tiny Bird,” Jim Harrison tells us, “Birds are poems I haven't caught yet.” In When We Were Birds, Suzanne Honda has taken "bird" to new levels, has caught the poems and the birds that other "bird" poets like Jim Harrison and Mary Oliver have left behind for us on this earth. Count your blessings for what Honda in this bird of a book has to offer. It is a gift born of winged beauty and flight.

Peter Markus, author of When Our Fathers Return to Us as Birds

ABOUT THE COVER ARTIST

Alec LaCasse is a Michigan sculptor of wood and stone, residing in and renovating a 100-year-old cabin north of Detroit. solo.to/aleclacasse