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Wishing for Birds
Reaching inwards to explore the self; reaching back to explore what made us who we are.
In this collection of fifty poems, Elisabeth Hewer ponders love and the world, whilst tackling the inexplicable desires and dangers that thread through our daily lives.
At times hopeful, at times despairing, her poems ruminate on all the things we comes up against, even if, on occasion, it’s only ourselves.
In this collection of fifty poems, Elisabeth Hewer ponders love and the world, whilst tackling the inexplicable desires and dangers that thread through our daily lives.
At times hopeful, at times despairing, her poems ruminate on all the things we comes up against, even if, on occasion, it’s only ourselves.
68 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 30, 2015
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1124 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
May 22, 2019
The girl on the news never invited
that man to touch her.
All I can think about is how
I wish she had something savage
coursing through her skin.
Elisabeth does something amazing with her debut collection. She somehow offers an introspective look into herself that serves as a commentary on the world around her. With a tone both dreamy and aching, there’s a simplicity to her words as she writes that manages to set a tone that will leave you yearning to explore the world. There’s also something to be said of Elisabeth’s proclivity to weave Classical and Biblical references into her own history; clever and subtle both, her pieces are every Classical mythology fan’s dream.
But ultimately, it’s the sharp edge that originally drew me to Elisabeth’s work that comes through brilliantly in this collection. It commands you to listen to the narrative of girlhood and recognise the experiences of modern and ancient women alike, speaking Helen of Troy and Ariadne before reflecting on the trials and tribulations of women in the modern era.
How apt that girls can be given back their voices by one with such talent.
May 16, 2016
Absolutely breathtaking. Would highly recommend.
September 18, 2021
see, now this is good poetry. i was actually invested and intrigued. it was dreamy yet fierce.
honestly, this book didn't need to snap this hard...
honestly, this book didn't need to snap this hard...
June 9, 2016
" I mean to say you're unbearable
but I'd suffer more than this to stay
close. "
I absolutely loved this collection! Definitely going to be looking out for more of Elisabeth's work!
but I'd suffer more than this to stay
close. "
I absolutely loved this collection! Definitely going to be looking out for more of Elisabeth's work!
April 22, 2019
“I want to sleep until the universe is open.
I want to sleep until I can pour myself into it
and never look back; chase galaxies
like sailors once chased ports.”
This was a dream of a poetry collection; filled with galaxies and stars, anger and longing, love and loathing. Hewer eloquently combines old myths with modern times, commenting on her own feelings while painting a picture of the world we live in. Everything is disguised in beautifully draped words, but there's many powerful images to be found underneath the surface.
In the poem Lands Calling she writes so accurately of the homesickness and isolation one feels when living in a city of pavement and apartment buildings, lacking private space and views of the horizon;
“I am tired of this. I am tired of grey.
I am tired of a world that extends ten metres
before somebody else's walls block it out.”
It felt so true, it almost hurt to read.
The poetry collection is split in three parts. Personally I much preferred the first part Looking Out which (oddly enough, considering its title) felt the most personal to me.
“I mean to say you're unbearable
but I'd suffer more than this to stay close.”
I want to sleep until I can pour myself into it
and never look back; chase galaxies
like sailors once chased ports.”
This was a dream of a poetry collection; filled with galaxies and stars, anger and longing, love and loathing. Hewer eloquently combines old myths with modern times, commenting on her own feelings while painting a picture of the world we live in. Everything is disguised in beautifully draped words, but there's many powerful images to be found underneath the surface.
In the poem Lands Calling she writes so accurately of the homesickness and isolation one feels when living in a city of pavement and apartment buildings, lacking private space and views of the horizon;
“I am tired of this. I am tired of grey.
I am tired of a world that extends ten metres
before somebody else's walls block it out.”
It felt so true, it almost hurt to read.
The poetry collection is split in three parts. Personally I much preferred the first part Looking Out which (oddly enough, considering its title) felt the most personal to me.
“I mean to say you're unbearable
but I'd suffer more than this to stay close.”
August 17, 2016
ACTUAL RATING: 4.5 STARS
Beautiful. Powerful. Poignant
Beautiful. Powerful. Poignant
December 24, 2018
Breathtaking! These poems are a treat to read (and reread). Every time I go through them again I notice new things. Highly recommend!
January 19, 2018
Stunning
To me this was a book about dreaming. Dreaming of being bigger, better, someone who makes a mark on the world.
I love the way Elisabeth challenges the idea that life will always be 'unfair' and instead says it is people and their inability to be kind which is often to blame. I loved the idea that sensitivity and positivity can change the world and I really hope that one day people will favour 'feeling emotion too deeply' over gaining power by caring less.
To me this was a book about dreaming. Dreaming of being bigger, better, someone who makes a mark on the world.
I love the way Elisabeth challenges the idea that life will always be 'unfair' and instead says it is people and their inability to be kind which is often to blame. I loved the idea that sensitivity and positivity can change the world and I really hope that one day people will favour 'feeling emotion too deeply' over gaining power by caring less.
April 24, 2017
About:
Wishing For Birds is a poetry collection that was written by Elisabeth Hewer and published in 2015. The collection is split into three sections entitled: Looking Out, Looking In and Looking Back. Elisabeth Hewer explores herself through these poems by examining what’s inside of herself, the world around her and her past. These poems show a desire for something more and a reflection of the world, the universe and of the self.
Did I Like It?:
I absolutely fell in love with this collection! This was the best poetry collection I have read in a long, long time. This was an accessible collection that was relatable and easy to get through. I had started thinking that accessible poetry had little literary merit and that it meant the poems wouldn’t hit you as deeply. I was wrong. This collection is perfect because it is accessible, but it’s also beautiful and profound. Elisabeth Hewer is quite a young poet I believe and she obviously has a good deal of talent. I think she has a bright future ahead of her if she continues to write poetry, which I sincerely hope she does.
Favorite Poems:
There was not a single poem in this collection that I disliked, which is quite unusual for a poetry collection. This collection was just that fabulous. I had so many favorites, but my top favorites were: Green Suns (the poem that includes the title), Space Race, You and/or Me, Lands Calling ( all poems about wanting more), Divine Tragedy ( a poem about anger and the shadow side of human nature) and the Lie of Unfair Life ( a poem questioning the way we have been taught to feel about life). If I had to choose a favorite section it would be the first section, Looking Out.
Do I Recommend It?:
With all my heart! If this appeals to you at all, please pick it up! This is for those who are big poetry fans and for those looking to get into poetry.
Wishing For Birds is a poetry collection that was written by Elisabeth Hewer and published in 2015. The collection is split into three sections entitled: Looking Out, Looking In and Looking Back. Elisabeth Hewer explores herself through these poems by examining what’s inside of herself, the world around her and her past. These poems show a desire for something more and a reflection of the world, the universe and of the self.
Did I Like It?:
I absolutely fell in love with this collection! This was the best poetry collection I have read in a long, long time. This was an accessible collection that was relatable and easy to get through. I had started thinking that accessible poetry had little literary merit and that it meant the poems wouldn’t hit you as deeply. I was wrong. This collection is perfect because it is accessible, but it’s also beautiful and profound. Elisabeth Hewer is quite a young poet I believe and she obviously has a good deal of talent. I think she has a bright future ahead of her if she continues to write poetry, which I sincerely hope she does.
Favorite Poems:
There was not a single poem in this collection that I disliked, which is quite unusual for a poetry collection. This collection was just that fabulous. I had so many favorites, but my top favorites were: Green Suns (the poem that includes the title), Space Race, You and/or Me, Lands Calling ( all poems about wanting more), Divine Tragedy ( a poem about anger and the shadow side of human nature) and the Lie of Unfair Life ( a poem questioning the way we have been taught to feel about life). If I had to choose a favorite section it would be the first section, Looking Out.
Do I Recommend It?:
With all my heart! If this appeals to you at all, please pick it up! This is for those who are big poetry fans and for those looking to get into poetry.
May 30, 2018
I have just finished Elisabeth Hewer’s Wishing for Birds and I have to say I am completely in awe of it. I have been following her for quite a while now and have anxiously awaited a publication of her poems, and now it’s finally here and has surpassed all of my expectations.
Although this collection of poems is only around 70 pages long, they pack such punch that they stay with you as any 300 page novel would. The final lines of each poem are a thing to behold, adding new meaning and revealing truths almost too painful and powerful to read. My favorite thing about Elisabeth Hewer’s poetry has always been the raw emotions behind her words; there’s an anger and a desperation that has always resonated with me, and lingered long after I had finished reading. The same is absolutely true of this book; everything is so raw and so real, even the happier moments she describes.
But it’s the lows, the star crossed lovers doomed to failure, the anger at the world and the disappointment in the self that really leaves its mark. They leave you aching, with the feeling that someone has just peered into your soul and said exactly what you’ve always been afraid to, and now that it’s been uttered you don’t know exactly where to go. “Finding Ariadne,” “Girl / Sea,” “God Should Have Made Girls Lethal,” “Weights,” “Personal Statements,” and “Stalking Past Selves” particularly resonated with me, and were so powerful and moving and wickedly good that I almost didn’t know how to feel afterwards. I felt like a mess of tangled emotions; there’s even relief as you read her poems, and you realize not only does this capture exactly how you feel, but you are overcome by the wonderful feeling that someone else is experiencing the same thing. Even though it might not be the most positive, it’s always nice to feel as if you aren’t alone.
Although this collection of poems is only around 70 pages long, they pack such punch that they stay with you as any 300 page novel would. The final lines of each poem are a thing to behold, adding new meaning and revealing truths almost too painful and powerful to read. My favorite thing about Elisabeth Hewer’s poetry has always been the raw emotions behind her words; there’s an anger and a desperation that has always resonated with me, and lingered long after I had finished reading. The same is absolutely true of this book; everything is so raw and so real, even the happier moments she describes.
But it’s the lows, the star crossed lovers doomed to failure, the anger at the world and the disappointment in the self that really leaves its mark. They leave you aching, with the feeling that someone has just peered into your soul and said exactly what you’ve always been afraid to, and now that it’s been uttered you don’t know exactly where to go. “Finding Ariadne,” “Girl / Sea,” “God Should Have Made Girls Lethal,” “Weights,” “Personal Statements,” and “Stalking Past Selves” particularly resonated with me, and were so powerful and moving and wickedly good that I almost didn’t know how to feel afterwards. I felt like a mess of tangled emotions; there’s even relief as you read her poems, and you realize not only does this capture exactly how you feel, but you are overcome by the wonderful feeling that someone else is experiencing the same thing. Even though it might not be the most positive, it’s always nice to feel as if you aren’t alone.
November 27, 2017
A beautiful collection of poetry.
"You:
A miracle with a smile like skies.
A universe wearing human skin."
Some of my favourite quotes:
"You're a defiant act of creation.
You're a whole solar system pretending to be a person."
"I do not know if stars get lonely,
or if angels have to take
off their shoes inside Heaven.
I don't know how perfume is made,
or if Antinous even wanted to be a god.
I don't know if your bones ache
the way mine do when I don't have you
near.
I don't know if I want to know, either."
"God should have made girls lethal
when he made monsters of men."
"It's too much, I try to whisper, too much
to carry this. You can't build a life
on another being. We're
foundations of sand. We're Atlas buckling under the sky."
"I guess I think about the state of death like
I think about the state of space:
infinite, terrifying, heart-stoppingly peaceful."
"I slap the naïve label on and ask
what we could do if we cared loudly about things and
envied the people who feel deeply
instead of the ones
who trick us into thinking
they don't feel anything at all."
"I'm not willing to be a person any more.
Science says I was part of a star once, and
I just -
I want to be back there, always burning."
"You:
A miracle with a smile like skies.
A universe wearing human skin."
Some of my favourite quotes:
"You're a defiant act of creation.
You're a whole solar system pretending to be a person."
"I do not know if stars get lonely,
or if angels have to take
off their shoes inside Heaven.
I don't know how perfume is made,
or if Antinous even wanted to be a god.
I don't know if your bones ache
the way mine do when I don't have you
near.
I don't know if I want to know, either."
"God should have made girls lethal
when he made monsters of men."
"It's too much, I try to whisper, too much
to carry this. You can't build a life
on another being. We're
foundations of sand. We're Atlas buckling under the sky."
"I guess I think about the state of death like
I think about the state of space:
infinite, terrifying, heart-stoppingly peaceful."
"I slap the naïve label on and ask
what we could do if we cared loudly about things and
envied the people who feel deeply
instead of the ones
who trick us into thinking
they don't feel anything at all."
"I'm not willing to be a person any more.
Science says I was part of a star once, and
I just -
I want to be back there, always burning."
September 6, 2016
Some of the poems were really great, and some I didn't like as much. Altogether a good collection of poems, and I'll definitely read more of her poetry.
October 27, 2017
Holy fuck.
I have no words, to be honest.
I have no words, to be honest.
May 18, 2017
This is a quietly powerful first book of poems. I bought this collection after reading a poem from it about Helen of Troy. Several other poems use figures from classical mythology and they were some of the best in the book. Hewer's poetry opens into a pondering consciousness that verges on neurotic. But there are sparks of imagination everywhere that shine light on the absurdities and anxieties of living in our age. Sadly, I didn't find the bird motif particularly powerful or new, but I definitely look forward to reading more from this poet.
May 19, 2017
I find it difficult to give a bad review of something I had very high hopes for. It always feels like a betrayal of sorts - of myself, the book, the author, I'm not entirely sure, but of something. Perhaps just a betrayal of my hopes, my will to make this a great reading experience.
It wasn't exactly. It's not that it was bad, in a sense, but I feel exceptionally underwhelmed. Poetry does not necessarily have to rhyme, far from it - especially in modern poetry - but (to me at least) it has to be lyrical, there has to be a rhythm, a sense that the words have been meticulously chosen for this one purpose, that it says something essential, something worthwhile, without the meaning being explained in too much detail.
Hewer's poems generally seem stuck between prose and verse, occasionally hitting that sweet poetic spot, but more often than not just feeling like a fleshed out narrative, in the form of sentences divided by pressing enter whenever it seemed appropriate. Here's an example from the poem Graveyard Hymn:
We don't remember these people and
nobody comes to put flowers out for them
anymore. When you bury me I want
all the best things I said carved into the
rock. Make people think I was funnier
or braver or smarter than I was.
It's not bad writing at all. But I would argue that it's not exactly poetry either - it could just as easily be three sentences in a novel. And that's perhaps want I want to say; Hewer should try her hand at novels, or at least short stories. She definitely has something to say, and she writes well about complicated issues, but this collection left me slightly disappointed.
/NK
It wasn't exactly. It's not that it was bad, in a sense, but I feel exceptionally underwhelmed. Poetry does not necessarily have to rhyme, far from it - especially in modern poetry - but (to me at least) it has to be lyrical, there has to be a rhythm, a sense that the words have been meticulously chosen for this one purpose, that it says something essential, something worthwhile, without the meaning being explained in too much detail.
Hewer's poems generally seem stuck between prose and verse, occasionally hitting that sweet poetic spot, but more often than not just feeling like a fleshed out narrative, in the form of sentences divided by pressing enter whenever it seemed appropriate. Here's an example from the poem Graveyard Hymn:
We don't remember these people and
nobody comes to put flowers out for them
anymore. When you bury me I want
all the best things I said carved into the
rock. Make people think I was funnier
or braver or smarter than I was.
It's not bad writing at all. But I would argue that it's not exactly poetry either - it could just as easily be three sentences in a novel. And that's perhaps want I want to say; Hewer should try her hand at novels, or at least short stories. She definitely has something to say, and she writes well about complicated issues, but this collection left me slightly disappointed.
/NK
July 19, 2016
I would 100% recommend this to anyone- especially young women. Elisabeth's dreamily cynical words will hit deep at times, and at others will skim the surface and give shape to something you'd be thinking about for days.
July 3, 2018
Rating: 3.5, rounding up because the ones I love, I really love.
But there are some poems that just miss it for me. Maybe it's that I don't connect with the topic or I didn't find them as lyrical as her Hewer's poems can be. Mythology/feral women ones are quotable to the point that I want tattoos of them but still there are enough in this collection to ignore that I don't want to give it five stars. I did enter with high expectations though.
But there are some poems that just miss it for me. Maybe it's that I don't connect with the topic or I didn't find them as lyrical as her Hewer's poems can be. Mythology/feral women ones are quotable to the point that I want tattoos of them but still there are enough in this collection to ignore that I don't want to give it five stars. I did enter with high expectations though.
September 22, 2017
I thought some poems were amazing and other left me pretty indifferent, but overall, a collection worth buying.
March 29, 2017
"God should have made girls lethal when he made monsters of men."
A stunning collection of poetry, it filled up my heart.
A stunning collection of poetry, it filled up my heart.
April 29, 2018
Wishing for Birds is a beautiful, lovely poetry collection full of all kinds of emotion. Loved it.
March 23, 2017
This is utterly beautiful.
August 22, 2018
Made my heart ache and rejoice. Such beauty! "I mean to say you're unbearable but I'd suffer more than this to stay close."
June 20, 2018
It made me want to write again
March 12, 2017
I have so much love for @fish.
February 26, 2017
I loved this poetry collection. Some poems more than others but overall it was beautiful.
Here are some of my favorite parts:
Other poems I loved:
Space Race
You and/or Me
Unpassable Exam
Dove Hands
The Monster in Me
The Deserter
Girl / Sea
The Things That I Know
Girls in the Twenty First Century
Three Rapes in One Week and They Just Wanted Us to Know That the City Was Safe
Love Letters From Helen of Troy
Personal Statement
The Lie of Unfair Life
Washing out Wounds
Here are some of my favorite parts:
I mean to say you're unbearable
but I'd suffer more than this to stay close.- All Hot Air
You:
A miracle with a smile like skies.
A universe wearing human skin.- You
You're a defiant act
of creation. You're a whole
solar system pretending to be
a person.- World Inside Expanding
I am tired of this. I am tired of grey.
I am tired of a world that extends ten metres
before somebody else's walls block it out.- Lands Calling
God should have made girls lethal
when he made monsters of men.- God Should Have Made Girls Lethal
You can't build a life
on another human being. We're foundations
of sand. We're Atlas buckling under the sky.- Weights
I think you will set yourself afire
before you realise that even you
cannot conquer the sun.- The Boy I Loved Left Me for a Revolution
Other poems I loved:
Space Race
You and/or Me
Unpassable Exam
Dove Hands
The Monster in Me
The Deserter
Girl / Sea
The Things That I Know
Girls in the Twenty First Century
Three Rapes in One Week and They Just Wanted Us to Know That the City Was Safe
Love Letters From Helen of Troy
Personal Statement
The Lie of Unfair Life
Washing out Wounds
December 26, 2015
In her debut collection of poetry, Elisabeth Hewer addresses love, loneliness, the world at large and all the possibilities and pains therein. Through the different sections of her book, she is introspective while keeping a wide scope that allows her words to remain familiar to all readers. Her work reads like the tales of an old friend, and yet somehow we are all this old friend, we have all felt these aches, felt small yet have yearned to be large and fearsome and as powerful as the universe around us, the universe that has hurt us.
Elisabeth captures these feelings and desires, these yearnings to be something more, to devour what doesn't consume us first. Her word are hungry and unforgiving and yet fragile. At the core of this book there is a softness, an ache that demands to be felt, demands answers from the unknown. Her poems are scattered with small, powerful moments full of color and raw emotion, snapshots from all the bright and empty places in the world, postcards from Elisabeth's heart that are full of radiance, and captured with beauty and brilliant simplicity.
This first collection leaves me dazzled, and eagerly awaiting more.
Elisabeth captures these feelings and desires, these yearnings to be something more, to devour what doesn't consume us first. Her word are hungry and unforgiving and yet fragile. At the core of this book there is a softness, an ache that demands to be felt, demands answers from the unknown. Her poems are scattered with small, powerful moments full of color and raw emotion, snapshots from all the bright and empty places in the world, postcards from Elisabeth's heart that are full of radiance, and captured with beauty and brilliant simplicity.
This first collection leaves me dazzled, and eagerly awaiting more.
August 27, 2017
I am going to say that no matter how amazed anyone else is that I electively read and finished a poetry collection, I am more surprised. What's more, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I think it helps that the poems aren't long or arduous to read or understand. I think it helps that the writer is of my generation, not only in age but in online and social media usage. She is a tumblr user, a fan, a woman in the modern world, which make her words and her poems that much more relatable. There of some, of course, that I don't 'get' or don't love, but there are some that I really enjoyed.
It's also nice to show some love and support for the lesser known author, something I am very much guilty of forgetting to do!
I think it helps that the poems aren't long or arduous to read or understand. I think it helps that the writer is of my generation, not only in age but in online and social media usage. She is a tumblr user, a fan, a woman in the modern world, which make her words and her poems that much more relatable. There of some, of course, that I don't 'get' or don't love, but there are some that I really enjoyed.
It's also nice to show some love and support for the lesser known author, something I am very much guilty of forgetting to do!
September 29, 2017
Some of the poems I found poignant and lovely, such as Green Suns, others i found insipid. Some of the imagery is very vivid in the best of ways, but some of it enters, in my opinion, purple prose overmuch (even for poetry).
October 25, 2020
i’ll readily admit i’m biased toward this slim thing — elle and i knew one another on tumblr back in the day when some of these poems were still going up, and i remember clearly what i associated most with two of (from what i could see then) her most popular poems: enjolras and “the boy i loved left me for a revolution,” and the instances where the last lines of “god should have made girls lethal” were so widely circulated that it was hard not to have them memorised. i was drawn to her work before, even when i didn’t know her, by the way she wove myths with emotions, so reading elle’s collection now is both a punch in the gut because of the power in her sparseness, and also a wonderful nostalgic throwback.
favourites: “@fish”; “dove hands”; “finding ariadne”; “the deserter”; “girl/sea”; “classical fiction”; and “homesickness”.
favourites: “@fish”; “dove hands”; “finding ariadne”; “the deserter”; “girl/sea”; “classical fiction”; and “homesickness”.
September 16, 2019
Impressive for a debut poetry collection.
Favourite bits :
"God should have made girls lethal when he made monsters of men."
- from God Should Have Made Girls Lethal
"My mind swirls around gates and walls and spaces for wicked things to sneak in."
- from Divine Tragedy
"We're selfish gods at the edge of the world, big enough to eat the stars."
- from The Edge
"Burning like it has become a habit, the world making its memory of you out of flames."
- from We Forgot That Our Heroines Were People Too
Favourite bits :
"God should have made girls lethal when he made monsters of men."
- from God Should Have Made Girls Lethal
"My mind swirls around gates and walls and spaces for wicked things to sneak in."
- from Divine Tragedy
"We're selfish gods at the edge of the world, big enough to eat the stars."
- from The Edge
"Burning like it has become a habit, the world making its memory of you out of flames."
- from We Forgot That Our Heroines Were People Too
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews