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The Air Year
The Air Year is a time of flight, transition and suspension: the shrill air as you fall through love, before crash, comedown - commitment. The poet crosses challenging threshholds, fear of commitment, of motherhood, shame and panic. 'I am proficient at beginnings,' Caroline Bird says. This book goes further and (with her characteristic energy and exuberance) risks the next level. People run on treadmills facing blue walls, burn talismans in their gardens, mime marriage with invisible wedding rings. Pilots bung bullet-holes with chewing gum. We cling on, to rickety rope-bridges, to something in the air, to one another. Bird's speakers exist in a state of suspension, trapped in liminal space between take-off and landing, a time of pure transition. Love is uncontrollable, joy comes and goes at hurricane speed. They walk to the cliff-edge, close their eyes and step out into the air.
64 pages, Paperback
First published February 27, 2020
22 people are currently reading
588 people want to read
About the author
Caroline Bird
18 books52 followersCaroline Bird was born in 1986 and grew up in Leeds before moving to London in 2001.
Caroline had been shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize twice in 2008 and 2010 and was the youngest writer on the list both times. She was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2014. She has also won an Eric Gregory Award (2002) and the Foyle Young Poet of the Year award two years running (1999, 2000), and was a winner of the Poetry London Competition in 2007, the Peterloo Poetry Competition in 2004, 2003 and 2002. Caroline was on the shortlist for Shell Woman Of The Future Awards 2011.
Caroline has had four collections of poetry published by Carcanet. Her first collection Looking Through Letterboxes (published in 2002 when she was only 15) is a topical, zesty and formally delightful collection of poems built on the traditions of fairy tale, fantasy and romance. Her second collection, Trouble Came to the Turnip, was published in September 2006 to critical acclaim. Watering Can, her third collection published in November 2009 celebrates life as an early twenty-something with comedy, wordplay and bright self-deprecation. Her fourth collection, The Hat-Stand Union, was described by Simon Armitage as ‘spring-loaded, funny, sad and deadly.’ Her fifth collection, In These Days of Prohibition, is due to be published July 2017.
Bird’s poems have been published in several anthologies and journals including Poetry Magazine, PN Review, Poetry Review and The North magazine. Several of her poems and a commissioned short story, Sucking Eggs, have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 3. She was one of the five official poets at London Olympics 2012. Her poem, The Fun Palace, which celebrates the life and work of Joan Littlewood, is now erected on the Olympic Site outside the main stadium.
In recent years, Caroline has given poetry performances at Aldeburgh Festival, Latitude Festival, the Manchester Literature Festival, the Wellcome Collection (with Don Paterson,) the Royal Festival Hall (with Elaine Feinstein), St Hilda’s College (with Wendy Cope), the Wordsworth Trust (with Gillian Allnutt), Cheltenham Festival, and Ledbury Festival, amongst others.
Caroline Bird began writing plays as a teenager when she was the youngest ever member of the Royal Court Young Writer’s Programme, tutored by Simon Stephens. In 2011 Caroline was invited to take part in Sixty Six Books by the Bush Theatre. She wrote a piece inspired by Leviticus, directed by Peter Gill. In February 2012, her Beano-inspired musical, The Trial of Dennis the Menace was performed in the Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre. She is currently writing the book and lyrics for Dennis the Menace the Musical for The Old Vic.
Caroline’s new version of The Trojan Women premiered at the Gate Theatre at the end of 2012 to wide critical acclaim. Caroline’s play Chamber Piece featured as Show 3 in the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith’s Secret Theatre season, premiering in October 2013, before touring the country. In 2013, Caroline was short-listed for Most Promising New Playwright at the Off-West-End Awards. In Christmas 2015, her re-twisted telling of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz premiered at Northern Stage, and received a four star review in The Times.
Caroline is also an enthusiastic leader of poetry workshops. In addition to working in primary and secondary schools, she is also a regular teacher at the Arvon Foundation. She is one of the writers-in-residence for the charity First Story. She is currently mentoring three exciting poets – Rachel Long, Emma Simon and Hilary Watson – for the Jerwood Arvon Mentorship Scheme.
Caroline had been shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize twice in 2008 and 2010 and was the youngest writer on the list both times. She was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2014. She has also won an Eric Gregory Award (2002) and the Foyle Young Poet of the Year award two years running (1999, 2000), and was a winner of the Poetry London Competition in 2007, the Peterloo Poetry Competition in 2004, 2003 and 2002. Caroline was on the shortlist for Shell Woman Of The Future Awards 2011.
Caroline has had four collections of poetry published by Carcanet. Her first collection Looking Through Letterboxes (published in 2002 when she was only 15) is a topical, zesty and formally delightful collection of poems built on the traditions of fairy tale, fantasy and romance. Her second collection, Trouble Came to the Turnip, was published in September 2006 to critical acclaim. Watering Can, her third collection published in November 2009 celebrates life as an early twenty-something with comedy, wordplay and bright self-deprecation. Her fourth collection, The Hat-Stand Union, was described by Simon Armitage as ‘spring-loaded, funny, sad and deadly.’ Her fifth collection, In These Days of Prohibition, is due to be published July 2017.
Bird’s poems have been published in several anthologies and journals including Poetry Magazine, PN Review, Poetry Review and The North magazine. Several of her poems and a commissioned short story, Sucking Eggs, have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 3. She was one of the five official poets at London Olympics 2012. Her poem, The Fun Palace, which celebrates the life and work of Joan Littlewood, is now erected on the Olympic Site outside the main stadium.
In recent years, Caroline has given poetry performances at Aldeburgh Festival, Latitude Festival, the Manchester Literature Festival, the Wellcome Collection (with Don Paterson,) the Royal Festival Hall (with Elaine Feinstein), St Hilda’s College (with Wendy Cope), the Wordsworth Trust (with Gillian Allnutt), Cheltenham Festival, and Ledbury Festival, amongst others.
Caroline Bird began writing plays as a teenager when she was the youngest ever member of the Royal Court Young Writer’s Programme, tutored by Simon Stephens. In 2011 Caroline was invited to take part in Sixty Six Books by the Bush Theatre. She wrote a piece inspired by Leviticus, directed by Peter Gill. In February 2012, her Beano-inspired musical, The Trial of Dennis the Menace was performed in the Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre. She is currently writing the book and lyrics for Dennis the Menace the Musical for The Old Vic.
Caroline’s new version of The Trojan Women premiered at the Gate Theatre at the end of 2012 to wide critical acclaim. Caroline’s play Chamber Piece featured as Show 3 in the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith’s Secret Theatre season, premiering in October 2013, before touring the country. In 2013, Caroline was short-listed for Most Promising New Playwright at the Off-West-End Awards. In Christmas 2015, her re-twisted telling of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz premiered at Northern Stage, and received a four star review in The Times.
Caroline is also an enthusiastic leader of poetry workshops. In addition to working in primary and secondary schools, she is also a regular teacher at the Arvon Foundation. She is one of the writers-in-residence for the charity First Story. She is currently mentoring three exciting poets – Rachel Long, Emma Simon and Hilary Watson – for the Jerwood Arvon Mentorship Scheme.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
June 6, 2023
I absolutely adored this collection of poems! Modern poetry speaks to me, specially poetry this good.
I hope all her work is this standard and I hope to find out.
I hope all her work is this standard and I hope to find out.
March 3, 2021
(4.5) I read this with a big smile on my face, delighting in how clever and playful the poems were. I’d read another of Bird’s collections earlier in the year and didn’t actually make the connection with her new one being on the Costa Award shortlist until I picked it up from the library. Dreams and miscommunication are common elements, and there are lists that grow increasingly absurd. In These Days of Prohibition had those same touches of the surreal. I particularly liked where the structure of a poem reflects or creates its meaning, e.g. the mise en abyme of “Dive Bar,” in which we plunge through a red door (which twice is actually a woman’s mouth) four times, or “Drawn Onward,” a palindrome of lines. “Checkout” imagines leaving Trip Advisor-style feedback for life at its end.
The impermanence of relationships is a recurring theme, with the title posited as the anniversary that comes before paper, though there are some genuinely sweet love poems, too (such as “Circles”: “take all my time, all my years and my ages” and “Primitive Heart,” a letter to a baby in utero). “The Golden Age” and “Morality Play” were two favorites; the former is an extended-to-ridiculousness list of the attributes and experiences of a female role model whose name is on the tip of the tongue but forgotten, while the latter ponders how we would live and what we would consider worthwhile if we knew that reality was just a video game.
A favorite passage (from “Sincerely”):
Let’s not dodge
branches as the forest runs towards us,
mark time by near misses, loves that mend
sure as cuts sliced through shadow
by a waving hand. I’m done with healing
over like water heals above a sinking body.
(I take this to mean that the speaker is tired of avoiding risk and thereby not experiencing real life.)
The impermanence of relationships is a recurring theme, with the title posited as the anniversary that comes before paper, though there are some genuinely sweet love poems, too (such as “Circles”: “take all my time, all my years and my ages” and “Primitive Heart,” a letter to a baby in utero). “The Golden Age” and “Morality Play” were two favorites; the former is an extended-to-ridiculousness list of the attributes and experiences of a female role model whose name is on the tip of the tongue but forgotten, while the latter ponders how we would live and what we would consider worthwhile if we knew that reality was just a video game.
A favorite passage (from “Sincerely”):
Let’s not dodge
branches as the forest runs towards us,
mark time by near misses, loves that mend
sure as cuts sliced through shadow
by a waving hand. I’m done with healing
over like water heals above a sinking body.
(I take this to mean that the speaker is tired of avoiding risk and thereby not experiencing real life.)
September 13, 2020
I finished reading this like a thirsty man given his first pint on a hot day. It's so good. It's the first Caroline Bird book I've read. It won't be the last.
There's something so clever - without being coldly intellectual - about her work. The way a poem that seems strange and odd coalesces into something so solid and beautiful. The way they look like they might be about one thing, but in the end, are about something else. Something like love.
My favourites were Mid-air; Checkout; The Ground; Urban Myth; The Girl Who Cried Love; The Final Episode; The Insurmountables; Circles; Little Children; The Golden Age and Primitive Heart.
It would be worth reading The Air Year for any single one of those poems but there is so much good stuff here. I've underlined so many passages. I wish I could remember them. I might try and learn one of them off by heart.
There's something so clever - without being coldly intellectual - about her work. The way a poem that seems strange and odd coalesces into something so solid and beautiful. The way they look like they might be about one thing, but in the end, are about something else. Something like love.
My favourites were Mid-air; Checkout; The Ground; Urban Myth; The Girl Who Cried Love; The Final Episode; The Insurmountables; Circles; Little Children; The Golden Age and Primitive Heart.
It would be worth reading The Air Year for any single one of those poems but there is so much good stuff here. I've underlined so many passages. I wish I could remember them. I might try and learn one of them off by heart.
Read
February 14, 2024Caroline Bird is one of those poets whose works you feel compelled to thrust into the hands of every passerby on the street. Her works are brutally honest, and they ride the spectrum of emotion in such an unrestrained and unapologetic way—from tongue-in-cheek and often uncomfortable hilarity to the kind of heartbreak and grief we all fear experiencing.
My full thoughts: https://booksandbao.com/contemporary-...
My full thoughts: https://booksandbao.com/contemporary-...
November 16, 2022
A light and levitating poetry collection with deep insights into love, loss, longing and the absurdity of existence.
June 28, 2021
Bird writes with urgency and with humour. This, her sixth full length collection, is full of surreal narratives: Bird creates characters whose partners are having affairs with torpedoes; characters talking to the High Priestess of Love; characters trapped in movies or video games; characters giving out "free money". She imbues these voices with tension and immediacy, which gives her poems a strong sense of narrative power. Few modern poets use narrative as much as Bird does, and she is adept at creating a strong voice and a sense of emotional urgency. Each poem in this book functions as a monologue, and they're interesting to read and keep the attention of the reader. But I didn't find as emotionally satisfying, or as rich in theme and scope, as some of Bird's earlier work. Sometimes the flights of surrealism were too much, as in "Morality Play", where the characters live in a video game, and the poems feel too claustrophobic and never reach a meaningful conclusion. But other poems are powerful, or very funny, or both. I loved Dive Bar, a tender and sexy poem about the joy of coming out and also a subversion of the idea of being "in the closet". I had great fun with some others, especially "Little Children", which explains that "Politically they're puritans. / They gasp at nudity like it's 1912." and goes on to say, "Imagine expecting universal loyalty whilst flinging / spaghetti hoops at the wall! Imagine having such / confidence in your innate philosophy of love!" There's a great tenderness in this poem, as well as a wonderful wit. Overall, this collection is well worth reading, and shows Bird to be a talented and imaginative poet, but I found the work here uneven.
December 29, 2024
A poet with an endearing taste for the absurd.
Having been intrigued by Bird's latest poetry collection Ambush at Still Lake, I decided to pick up a library ebook of her earlier work first. The Air Year offered me a strong insight into her style.
Bird is an LGBTQ+ writer who beautifully captures relationships, particularly the tragic miscommunications that lead to lover's tiffs and icy silence. She does this through a mixture of free verse and prose poetry, often featuring a conversational tone that doesn't take itself too seriously.
As mentioned above, the poems featured also delve into absurdity and playful existentialism, which is right up my street. The dry humour is largely pitched well, though there are a couple of instances that I feel go on for too long and get muddled in the middle. Mind you, I don't think I've read a poetry collection yet that hasn't suffered from such stylistic issues.
The important thing is that The Air Year never lost me. More than this, I am drawn to Bird's approach to life and poetry, which can be profound but not pretentious. I recommend The Air Year to anyone looking for similar.
Notable Poems
• Temporary Vows - a vivid illustration of how commitments can weaken a love bond.
• The Red Telephone - a powerful depiction of how we turn a blind eye to others in pain.
• The Golden Age - a poetic riff on how daft we can sound when describing celebrities.
Having been intrigued by Bird's latest poetry collection Ambush at Still Lake, I decided to pick up a library ebook of her earlier work first. The Air Year offered me a strong insight into her style.
Bird is an LGBTQ+ writer who beautifully captures relationships, particularly the tragic miscommunications that lead to lover's tiffs and icy silence. She does this through a mixture of free verse and prose poetry, often featuring a conversational tone that doesn't take itself too seriously.
As mentioned above, the poems featured also delve into absurdity and playful existentialism, which is right up my street. The dry humour is largely pitched well, though there are a couple of instances that I feel go on for too long and get muddled in the middle. Mind you, I don't think I've read a poetry collection yet that hasn't suffered from such stylistic issues.
The important thing is that The Air Year never lost me. More than this, I am drawn to Bird's approach to life and poetry, which can be profound but not pretentious. I recommend The Air Year to anyone looking for similar.
Notable Poems
• Temporary Vows - a vivid illustration of how commitments can weaken a love bond.
• The Red Telephone - a powerful depiction of how we turn a blind eye to others in pain.
• The Golden Age - a poetic riff on how daft we can sound when describing celebrities.
August 4, 2021
Sublime. Sarcastic. Ironic. Clever. Introspective.
Caroline's collection is a trip. A rugged, jarring, whimsical, sardonic trip.
Caroline's collection is a trip. A rugged, jarring, whimsical, sardonic trip.
February 19, 2022
This collection is continually surprising. Bird's expression is unlike anything I've ever read. She has an ability to merge the ramblings of a mad-woman with sublime wisdom in such a way that her craft mirrors its meaning: "The Air Year". The liminality of this collection traps us in the inbetween, "suspended in amber". Caught between knowing and not knowing, between genuis and idiocy, between celebration and shame, between what is real and what is imagined.
I'm not saying every single poem in this collection wove a telepathic thread around my heart, but there are enough poems that smash you in the face with unexpected truths to more than make this a five star collection.
Her writing demands contemplation. So much so that I must have opened this book at the first poem "Mid-Air", only to read it and be forced to close the pages again, sunk by the weight of it, at least five times before I allowed myself to move on. Below are a few soundbites I collected from my favourites:
Mid-Air: "if kisses were scored by composers / they'd be placed on the breath of an upbeat."
The Ground: "who knows how long you've been travelling / down this thing, incrementally, held in the loosening-/ tightening fist of a giant with a featureless face."
Urban Myth: "cork each new wound with a wad of sweetness freshley printed from the panic of our mouths."
Rope Bridges: "a rope bridge hangs / as a testament, the last remaining thread of thought. / Some are twenty-five years old, woven from dolls' / hair and nettles."
Surrealism for Beginners: "nothing really changed / exactly, reality just got more pronounced / like someone underlined the word 'normal' / in our stage directions, you know?"
"I don't care / what the producers in the sky say, / they're not in my heart, they don't know / the subtle earthquake of her eyes."
Rookie: "what if / you thought you could tie your laces? / But all this time you were just wrapping / a whole roll of sellotape round your shoe and / hoping for the best?"
Little Children: "little children are like / the tsarist autocracy of pre-revolution Russia"
"imagine having such / confidence in your innate philosophy of love!"
Fancy Dress: "me in a wisdom costume trying to staple the cloak to my skin"
"4AM in revelation costume"
The Factory Floor: "how could they doubt the transparency of a glass office?"
"although the prosecution would later describe this time as a 'manic lying spree', I remember it as my month of magical thinking."
I'm not saying every single poem in this collection wove a telepathic thread around my heart, but there are enough poems that smash you in the face with unexpected truths to more than make this a five star collection.
Her writing demands contemplation. So much so that I must have opened this book at the first poem "Mid-Air", only to read it and be forced to close the pages again, sunk by the weight of it, at least five times before I allowed myself to move on. Below are a few soundbites I collected from my favourites:
Mid-Air: "if kisses were scored by composers / they'd be placed on the breath of an upbeat."
The Ground: "who knows how long you've been travelling / down this thing, incrementally, held in the loosening-/ tightening fist of a giant with a featureless face."
Urban Myth: "cork each new wound with a wad of sweetness freshley printed from the panic of our mouths."
Rope Bridges: "a rope bridge hangs / as a testament, the last remaining thread of thought. / Some are twenty-five years old, woven from dolls' / hair and nettles."
Surrealism for Beginners: "nothing really changed / exactly, reality just got more pronounced / like someone underlined the word 'normal' / in our stage directions, you know?"
"I don't care / what the producers in the sky say, / they're not in my heart, they don't know / the subtle earthquake of her eyes."
Rookie: "what if / you thought you could tie your laces? / But all this time you were just wrapping / a whole roll of sellotape round your shoe and / hoping for the best?"
Little Children: "little children are like / the tsarist autocracy of pre-revolution Russia"
"imagine having such / confidence in your innate philosophy of love!"
Fancy Dress: "me in a wisdom costume trying to staple the cloak to my skin"
"4AM in revelation costume"
The Factory Floor: "how could they doubt the transparency of a glass office?"
"although the prosecution would later describe this time as a 'manic lying spree', I remember it as my month of magical thinking."
August 2, 2023
what a delightful little collection…… i love caroline bird’s poetry, the best pieces in here are always just so whimsical & surreal & silly & fun & fantastical. what a treat. it feels like reading a little picture book; it has that same sense of unbridled joyousness.
December 25, 2020
some of my favourites were: ‘checkout’, ‘the girl who cried love’, ‘little children’, ‘morality play’, ‘the factory floor’. funny and touching; completely convinced me to read more poetry.
November 30, 2021
I love carving time out to sit and read, and reread, a collection of poetry. The Air Year turned out to be a great choice for doing just that.
These poems are so beautiful and witty, and I love the way they fit together. Apparently I've found a new favourite poet.
These poems are so beautiful and witty, and I love the way they fit together. Apparently I've found a new favourite poet.
January 9, 2022
i highlighted this A LOT so it must be good. no standouts but i definitely want to explore caroline bird more
March 28, 2021
A recently published book I have read is The Air Year by Caroline Bird. I am easing myself into reading whole poetry collections, as previously I have wrestled with this format, favouring prose. However, I nearly devoured this stunning collection in one sitting. Bird has mastered writing love poems (‘Checkout’ being one of my favourites) and surrealist poems, creating the most bizarre scenarios to say quite beautiful things.
Her voice is quite self-assured, and she uses bold imagery and specific memories to create a feeling of such realness. The thread of drama and theatre throughout the collection gives a sense of her character. Yet, there are moments of uncertainty and vulnerability (like in ‘Anaesthetic’) which draw the reader in past the baffling surrealism.
Beyond the emotional poems, The Air Year is also an extremely fun collection. The strange poems (‘The Girl Who Cried Love’, ‘Surrealism for Beginners’, and ‘Fancy Dress’) had me smiling, as Bird has a brilliant grasp of the mundane and can make it humorous. The situations her speaker and characters are placed in are pleasantly amusing, without being outrageous, or cheap.
Overall, The Air Year is a wonderfully crafted collection which I hope to read again for the joyous warmth it gave me.
My fave poems include:
-Dive Bar
-Checkout
-Urban Myth
-The Girl Who Cried Love
-Surrealism For Beginners
-Fancy Dress
Her voice is quite self-assured, and she uses bold imagery and specific memories to create a feeling of such realness. The thread of drama and theatre throughout the collection gives a sense of her character. Yet, there are moments of uncertainty and vulnerability (like in ‘Anaesthetic’) which draw the reader in past the baffling surrealism.
Beyond the emotional poems, The Air Year is also an extremely fun collection. The strange poems (‘The Girl Who Cried Love’, ‘Surrealism for Beginners’, and ‘Fancy Dress’) had me smiling, as Bird has a brilliant grasp of the mundane and can make it humorous. The situations her speaker and characters are placed in are pleasantly amusing, without being outrageous, or cheap.
Overall, The Air Year is a wonderfully crafted collection which I hope to read again for the joyous warmth it gave me.
My fave poems include:
-Dive Bar
-Checkout
-Urban Myth
-The Girl Who Cried Love
-Surrealism For Beginners
-Fancy Dress
Read
January 24, 2021A nice little poetry collection about love and loss and, a little bit, the end of the world. I almost wished Bird had leaned into the apocalypse elements present in some of her poems because those in particular shone through the book.
The poems flipped between the simply sincere to the more interestingly surreal. Again, I wish she had leaned into the surreality of her work more. In a lot of ways reading this was like reading two collections, one that was excellent and one I liked just fine. I guess that's the risk with any collection, that some parts are always going to be stronger than others.
The poems flipped between the simply sincere to the more interestingly surreal. Again, I wish she had leaned into the surreality of her work more. In a lot of ways reading this was like reading two collections, one that was excellent and one I liked just fine. I guess that's the risk with any collection, that some parts are always going to be stronger than others.
June 7, 2020
Surrealist poetry at it's finest! Strange but wonderful imagery is woven together to create something extraordinary! Ultimately it is about relationships and the ability to capture that intimacy in such beautiful words is truly amazing 😍
June 11, 2020
Firecracker of a poetry book, sparkling, full of life, made me laugh on many occasions.Some of it obtuse like a lot of modern poetry but then I am a bit thick so that explains some of my lack of understanding.Really inventive and exciting use of language.Very enjoyable.
August 10, 2020
Out of all the poetry books I've purchased since the Covid-19 lockdown began, the one that sticks out that gives me a pause to say "wow" after each poem, that is so brilliant, so clever, and pulls at the deep emotions is Caroline Bird's The Air Year. Such unbelievable magic in her writing.
November 8, 2021
Sanity
I do kind gestures. Remove my appendix.
I put my ear to a flat shell and—nothing.
I play the lottery ironically. Get married.
Have a smear test. I put my ear to the beak
of a dead bird—nothing. I grow wisdom
teeth. Jog. I pick up a toddler’s telephone,
Hello?—No answer. I change a light bulb
on my own. Organize a large party. Hire
a clown. Attend a four-day stonewalling
course. Have a baby. Stop eating Coco Pops.
I put my ear right up to the slack and gaping
bonnet of a daffodil—. Get divorced. Floss.
Describe a younger person’s music taste as
“just noise.” Enjoy perusing a garden center.
Sit in a pub without drinking. I stand at the
lip of a pouting valley—speak to me!
My echo plagiarizes. I land a real love plus
two real cats. I never meet the talking bird
again. Or the yawning hole. The panther
of purple wisps who prowls inside the air.
I change nappies. Donate my eggs. Learn
a profound lesson about sacrifice. Brunch.
No singing floorboards. No vents leaking
scentless instructions. My mission is over.
The world has zipped up her second mouth.
Had a tiny dog called Handbag,
kept her house keys in his stomach.
A stranger in a hope costume
Your face in a listening costume
A window holding up a large blue sign
I do kind gestures. Remove my appendix.
I put my ear to a flat shell and—nothing.
I play the lottery ironically. Get married.
Have a smear test. I put my ear to the beak
of a dead bird—nothing. I grow wisdom
teeth. Jog. I pick up a toddler’s telephone,
Hello?—No answer. I change a light bulb
on my own. Organize a large party. Hire
a clown. Attend a four-day stonewalling
course. Have a baby. Stop eating Coco Pops.
I put my ear right up to the slack and gaping
bonnet of a daffodil—. Get divorced. Floss.
Describe a younger person’s music taste as
“just noise.” Enjoy perusing a garden center.
Sit in a pub without drinking. I stand at the
lip of a pouting valley—speak to me!
My echo plagiarizes. I land a real love plus
two real cats. I never meet the talking bird
again. Or the yawning hole. The panther
of purple wisps who prowls inside the air.
I change nappies. Donate my eggs. Learn
a profound lesson about sacrifice. Brunch.
No singing floorboards. No vents leaking
scentless instructions. My mission is over.
The world has zipped up her second mouth.
Had a tiny dog called Handbag,
kept her house keys in his stomach.
A stranger in a hope costume
Your face in a listening costume
A window holding up a large blue sign
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 14, 2021
I'm the only one thus far on Goodreads that has given this collection such a low rating. Eeek.
My problem with Caroline Bird's poetry in The Air Year however, is the same issue I have with a lot of contemporary poetry. Bird has countless ideas and images, often written in the form of lists (see 'Fancy Dress'), but in the overwhelming evidence of lists of poetic imagery, there isn't as much to be found in terms of actual depth.
It's not that Bird isn't capable of writing well. 'Little Children' is a really great poem, as is 'Primitive Heart'. When she looks at something like childhood and infancy in its isolation and really explores ideas within one framework, the poems normally come across as quite genuine and original. When the pieces are instead long prose poems that have a handful of different ideas in each line however, I start to feel frustrated rather than engaged.
Still, clearly I am in the minority when it comes to this opinion.
My problem with Caroline Bird's poetry in The Air Year however, is the same issue I have with a lot of contemporary poetry. Bird has countless ideas and images, often written in the form of lists (see 'Fancy Dress'), but in the overwhelming evidence of lists of poetic imagery, there isn't as much to be found in terms of actual depth.
It's not that Bird isn't capable of writing well. 'Little Children' is a really great poem, as is 'Primitive Heart'. When she looks at something like childhood and infancy in its isolation and really explores ideas within one framework, the poems normally come across as quite genuine and original. When the pieces are instead long prose poems that have a handful of different ideas in each line however, I start to feel frustrated rather than engaged.
Still, clearly I am in the minority when it comes to this opinion.
January 27, 2025
“My echo plagiarises.” Caroline Bird’s The Air Year is her latest and most electric collection of poems, full of emotive insight and deliciously dark humour. There’s something for everyone in these poems: the evocative back-and-forth structure of ‘Drawn Onward’, the outrageous hilarity of ‘The Girl Who Cried Love’, the wry wit of ‘Checkout’ and ‘The Final Episode’. There’s poems that will confound, including the poem with the line “I’M SORRY I’M NOT A FUCKING TORPEDO!”, and poems to inspire absolute dread in the most resolute of hearts, such as ‘Naphthalene Heights’ and my personal favourite, ‘The Red Telephone’, which feels like it crawled right out of the darkest pits in my mind. I am in awe of Bird’s lyrical, rhythmic bounty, her insistence on love and human connection, and her fearlessness in saying what usually chokes up the rest of us. “We just want to land or / be landed on.”
January 26, 2021
Sometimes you hear a whoosh or the flutter of wings as poems fly over your head. Some way into this Forward Prize-winning collection I was still hearing nothing but where were they all going? Perhaps I had to feel my way in or take a run up to Caroline Bird's work... at any rate there was no mistaking the rich seam of delights when it came.
I especially enjoyed The Factory Floor (is it a poem, is it a short story, it certainly has a rhythm), Fancy Dress, Prepper (not the cellar full of tins kind), Morality Play, The Golden Age, Emotional Reasoning (again, an interesting form)... but best of all was Little Children, whose truth (It begins "Politically they're puritans" rings out like the clearest of bells.
I especially enjoyed The Factory Floor (is it a poem, is it a short story, it certainly has a rhythm), Fancy Dress, Prepper (not the cellar full of tins kind), Morality Play, The Golden Age, Emotional Reasoning (again, an interesting form)... but best of all was Little Children, whose truth (It begins "Politically they're puritans" rings out like the clearest of bells.
September 2, 2024
oh. my god. this book was so unexpected. at first I was like oh this has some cool story like poems, almost like fables but also just so surreal? and weird and unafraid to just say shit and then in the middle poems it felt more like the author was leaning into more into a more upfront poems with the speakers just talking about what things were like to them what they thought or felt about things and then it nosedived immediately back into fiction like poems that just wow this was so cool i was not expecting this book to be like this at all!!!
October 28, 2025
I wanted to update my contemporary female poets list and came across Caroline Bird. Mid-Air, Speechless, and Rope Bridges are my favourites from this collection.
"There's a corner of the city where the air is soft resin.
Step in and it hardens around you. Suspended in amber.
We made the mistake of kissing there, I mean here.
Our mouths midway
Across the same
inhalation like robbers mid-leap between rooftops"
"There's a corner of the city where the air is soft resin.
Step in and it hardens around you. Suspended in amber.
We made the mistake of kissing there, I mean here.
Our mouths midway
Across the same
inhalation like robbers mid-leap between rooftops"
August 3, 2020
I haven’t read a huge amount of poetry outside the classroom which I was really eager to change this year, and I couldn’t be happier that I chose to start here.
🤍
On the surface, Bird’s poetry & the ideas she explores seem quite simple as she shares views & thoughts on the ordinary and the everyday, but it’s underneath the surface that the magic truly happens.
🤍
As you read her works, you’re transported into the dark and glittering depths of human experience, and through her honest, humorous and at times painful exploration of love, loss, sacrifice and regret, Bird draws you in, chews you up and spits you back out feeling a little vulnerable but nevertheless alive.
🤍
I love poetry’s ability to evoke such strong reactions and emotions in often only a few words, and Bird’s observations and descriptions in The Air Year are a wonderful example of this. Incredible.
🤍
🤍
On the surface, Bird’s poetry & the ideas she explores seem quite simple as she shares views & thoughts on the ordinary and the everyday, but it’s underneath the surface that the magic truly happens.
🤍
As you read her works, you’re transported into the dark and glittering depths of human experience, and through her honest, humorous and at times painful exploration of love, loss, sacrifice and regret, Bird draws you in, chews you up and spits you back out feeling a little vulnerable but nevertheless alive.
🤍
I love poetry’s ability to evoke such strong reactions and emotions in often only a few words, and Bird’s observations and descriptions in The Air Year are a wonderful example of this. Incredible.
🤍
June 28, 2022
it’s a shame the cover of this book is so beautiful because it will never go back onto my shelf
this was absolutely WACK and overly sexual and like what on earth is she talking about???
I tried so hard to get it, but I just couldn’t.
this was absolutely WACK and overly sexual and like what on earth is she talking about???
I tried so hard to get it, but I just couldn’t.
May 20, 2025
i love it. it is quirky and real and unpretentious. feels like breathing. i clocked a theme about not being able to love properly and admitting romantic deafness. you can love something you cannot keep. it is also a comfortable read. i did not find myself getting intimidated. so nice.
April 7, 2020
First Caroline Bird and I am hooked.
April 22, 2020
Daft, romantic, charming.
August 19, 2020
Loved this book. Full of Caroline Bird signature blend of humour and poignancy. One of our most imaginative poets, and one of her best books yet
Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews