Endlings: A Collection of Poems About Extinct Animals

by Joanna Lilley

Endlings takes us across continents and through the long expanse of aeons to give voice to the dead. In poems that are lyrical, exact, and deeply melancholic, Joanna Lilley demands audience for the final moments of animal extinction. From the zebra-horse quagga and chiding dodo, to the giant woolly mammoth and delicate Xerces Blue Butterfly, the haunting, urgent words of these "endlings" cut to the bone to expose the brutality of Nature and the devastating repercussions of human ignorance and intent, while giving hope that our humanity will help save what remains.

Genres: Poetry

153 pages, Paperback

Published April 15, 2020

About the author

Joanna Lilley's third poetry collection, Endlings, was published by Turnstone Press and won the 2021 Fred Kerner Book Award. Her other books are a novel, Worry Stones (Ronsdale Press), which was longlisted for the Caledonia Novel Award, a short story collection, The Birthday Books (Radiant Press), and the poetry collections If There Were Roads (Turnstone Press) and The Fleece Era (Brick Books) which was nominated for the Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry. Joanna is from the UK and now lives in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada.

Reviews

[Vanessa Farnsworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

The poems in 'Endlings' introduce readers to the last known members of extinct species from around the globe, some of whom died out many millennia ago while others passed from existence within recent decades. Lilley triumphs in bringing these doomed creatures to vibrant life and in sharing their unique value with readers along with the tragic stories of how they came to be wiped out of existence. By turns poignant and heartbreaking, each poem is an ode to an individual species that we can now collectively experience only as museum exhibits, half-remembered stories, and ghostly photographs. It's difficult not to feel the loss.

[Alissa Hattman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poems on species loss that help activate our sense of amazement and wonder for the more-than-human world. Precise, detailed, fascinating, full of grief and care. "Perhaps / we can delay our inevitable extinction / by persuading our DNA into a kinder / transmutation. Perhaps we can augment our aptitude for wonder." Indeed.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorite poems:

"Goddess of the Yangtze"
"Lepidopterology as a Method of Foretelling"
"The Last Labrador Duck"
"Great Northern Expedition"
"On Eldey Island"
"Big Island"
"Official Announcement"
"Black"
"The Last Age"
"Rainforest"
"Dendrochronology"
"Specimen"

[Christopher J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much of the verse was well written and interesting. Some was even compelling. It wasn't a bad book at all. Drawing attention to so many extinct species also seems a useful exercise.

[Lianne Burwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wouldn't call the poems super distinctive, but the theme of poetry about extinct animals makes this an interesting collection to read, and one that I am glad I bought.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful collection of poems, never more necessary than now:heartbreaking, poignantly ironic and humourous, a gift of a look inside all that we are still taking for granted. A wake up call from a tremendously ethical, talented poet who lives her life with the intense commitment to make the world a better place, one phenomenal book after another. Watch her career carefully!

[Csenge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so happy I came across this book. It is thoughtful and enchanting. It might seem like a depressing idea to read an entire book of poems about extinct animals, and it does have its heartbreaking moments. But as a whole, it is more about how incredible nature is, and what we lose when we don't care for it. It also has several poems about dinosaurs and other long-extinct species, and the wonder they represent. The author has deep love for each of them, and a beautiful way with words. It is a collection that inspires us to try to do better.