The Ways in Which We Are Like Birds: Collected Poems

by Elisabeth Pike

THE WAYS IN WHICH WE ARE LIKE BIRDS is the third collection of poetry from Elisabeth Pike.

This collection speaks to what it is to be a woman today, with all the complexities of identity, childbirth and body image, using some of the behaviours of birds as a nesting, homing, preening, flight, and song.

The poems point back to nature as the constant healer. These grounded yet hopeful reflections on life will appeal to fans of Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry, and RS Thomas.

This new collection features several poems previously published in There You Are and Voice at the Window along with many more new, unpublished works.

Contents

HOMING
From September (2008)

Uncle John
NY
Decay
Little Wooden Chair
Phone Call
Ode to Reading Station
Rain
Rio
Even Still

NESTING
From There You Are (2017)

Snow
Afterwards
How Terrifying
Darkness
There You Are
Love Poem
Scan
Laundry
Something in Between
Pied Piper
A Walk Near Shere
Waiting for Ivy
Lemon Cake
Moment
Guildford
Si Paloma
Crying in Public Places
My Boy, My Girl
Spring Nights
December
Charterhouse
July Thunder
Little Park
Trembling Heart
Type 1
Thunderstorm
Half Past Nine
The Bells
Kind
Kiss on the Lips
Little Car
Nap
Five Thirty
Sand Martins
Inwood

MIGRATION

Petals
On Leaving a Place
Weight
Freefall
Dittisham
Sadness
Longing
Cardigan
Younger, Happier
Uncoupling
Raye
Animae

There We Were (from Paper Birds)

SONG

From Voice at the Window, One Hundred Poems of Gratitude written during lockdown (2020)

Gratitude # 6
Gratitude # 7
Gratitude # 19
Gratitude # 25
Gratitude # 43
Gratitude # 49
Gratitude # 52
Gratitude # 57
Gratitude # 59
Gratitude # 70
Gratitude # 71
Gratitude # 77
Gratitude # 82
A Note to the Creatives
Gratitude #85
Gratitude #87
Gratitude #92
Gratitude #95
Gratitude #106
Gratitude #113
Gratitude #115
Gratitude #120
Gratitude # 130
Gratitude #133
Gratitude # 147
Gratitude #154
Gratitude #166
Gratitude #181

PREENING

Sometimes
Sometimes it Feels Impossible
Ash
Seed Pods
Mouthful
Curled Like a Cat
Like a Whip
Ukraine
Magnolia
Piano
Swallow
Half Marathon
Sleep
Hope
At Whixall Moss
Alliums
Ridge Line
Soak
Dreamer's Workshop
Mexican Wave
Bluebell

From Lent Poems

Cleanse
See
Walk
Follow
Promise
Room
For Sarah
Keep Watch
Sacrifice
Cross
Cloths
Hidden
Darkness
Wait
Dawn

FLIGHT

I am Woman
Love

178 pages, Paperback

Published March 18, 2025

About the author

Elisabeth Pike is a freelance writer and maker. Her debut novel, Murmuration, a YA dystopian survival story, was shortlisted for the Kindle Storyteller Award 2024. Christopher, Running is her second novel. Find her at elisabethpike.co.uk

Sign up to her mailing list here: https://preview.mailerlite.io/forms/1...

Find her newsletter about the ups and downs of the creative life here: https://substack.com/@minersbyelisabe...

Find her on socials @elisabethpikewriter (Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok)

Reviews

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elisabeth Pike's poetry collection, The Ways In Which We Are Like Birds, gives us a beautiful and heartwarming slice of her personal history. Describing much loved homes, longed-for and cherished children, and the rollercoaster of family relationships, she shares some of the wide variety of experiences that make up a whole season of life, with well-wrought language and breath-taking honesty. Although it doesn't hide from painful memories, the overall sense is of hope and the collection as a whole makes for an uplifting read. My particular favourite is the 'A Note to the Creatives', stuck in the middle of a series of Gratitude poems written during the Covid pandemic. For me, this poem epitomises Pike's writing: she acknowledges what is painful, even impossible, in the present, but encourages us to look to the future with faith that things will get better. And I believe, with her, that they will.