What do you think?
Rate this book
The Language of the Birds: Poems
According to legend, the language of the birds was a mystical language God used to talk with Adam and Eve when he walked with them in the garden of Eden. Amy Nemecek listens for this divine dialect as she communes with God on her walks along country roads and creek banks, through forests and hayfields. She observes the world around her with expectation, knowing that God still speaks to us as he is at work making all things new. If we have ears to hear, we can catch snippets of his grace in the watercolor silhouette of a bird, the thrum of a tractor engine, the tang of a grapefruit, the curvature of an ampersand. Amy doesn’t want to miss any of it, so she remains attentive to the smooth grit of beach sand, the tendrils of a nebula, and the steady gaze of a fossil. She delights in the details, and you will too.
In this collection of lyric and narrative poems, you are invited to walk with her as she reflects on larger themes of beauty, loss, motherhood, family, and vocation. She contemplates the sacredness of ordinary moments that we usually don’t recognize except in hindsight. Twining through every line is an aching hopefulness that ties together her love of words, her devotion to scripture, and her deep gratitude for each of life’s joys and griefs.
“Rub dust on your palms, pluck the ripened sunshine, and taste this poetic grace.” —Dwight Baker, president and CEO of Baker Publishing Group
In this collection of lyric and narrative poems, you are invited to walk with her as she reflects on larger themes of beauty, loss, motherhood, family, and vocation. She contemplates the sacredness of ordinary moments that we usually don’t recognize except in hindsight. Twining through every line is an aching hopefulness that ties together her love of words, her devotion to scripture, and her deep gratitude for each of life’s joys and griefs.
“Rub dust on your palms, pluck the ripened sunshine, and taste this poetic grace.” —Dwight Baker, president and CEO of Baker Publishing Group
- GenresPoetry
Kindle Edition
Published October 25, 2022
1 person is currently reading
44 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 22, 2022
This collection is beautiful, tender, vulnerable, and true. I have loved Nemecek's poetry for years and am thrilled to hold this book in my hands (and in my heart). Lovers of Mary Oliver and Lucy Shaw will adore The Language of the Birds.
October 25, 2022
She captured me at “feathered the vertical downstroke/flourished with serif of pinions” and then “Fly!” in the first and title poem. Amy Nemecek begins her book, The Language of the Birds, by imagining the Creator speaking birds into being, compares the first and second Adam (“closed in sleep like death” “close in sleep-like death”) and their brides, and other biblical stories.
Continuing the journey, Amy shows the hand of the Divine from glimpses of her ancestors to major life events as well as in the everyday stroll along Buck Creek. I laughed out loud at “Back to School” and hushed at the very next “Vigil.” I can sense her with her mother as a “caress of softness against scalp/quiets hands peeling imaginary potatoes.” I can taste the spiced peaches, “slurping mushy flesh from stones” in “A Grief Preserved.”
Who can read these vignettes without remembering their own family stories of grandma, grandpa, loss, cancer diagnosis, parenting or a walk in “autumn susurrus/as crisp lines crunch/iambic feet/beneath my boots” in “October”?
This collection moved me to remember, to sense, to look up new words (graupel, gamboge, sarsen, sotto voce) and to contemplate the One who “blew across the wet silhouette” and said, “Fly!”
Continuing the journey, Amy shows the hand of the Divine from glimpses of her ancestors to major life events as well as in the everyday stroll along Buck Creek. I laughed out loud at “Back to School” and hushed at the very next “Vigil.” I can sense her with her mother as a “caress of softness against scalp/quiets hands peeling imaginary potatoes.” I can taste the spiced peaches, “slurping mushy flesh from stones” in “A Grief Preserved.”
Who can read these vignettes without remembering their own family stories of grandma, grandpa, loss, cancer diagnosis, parenting or a walk in “autumn susurrus/as crisp lines crunch/iambic feet/beneath my boots” in “October”?
This collection moved me to remember, to sense, to look up new words (graupel, gamboge, sarsen, sotto voce) and to contemplate the One who “blew across the wet silhouette” and said, “Fly!”
April 14, 2023
You are in for a treat. This is a mixture of nature poetry, devotional poetry, and reflections on family. Amy has brought together my many great poems. Some of my favorites:
Adam's Rib
Palm Sunday 2017
Recipes from a Food Pantry
Memory Garden
Streets of Gold
Acedia
Grapefruit
Mechanics
Aslan Makes a Door in the Air
Only Child
**I received an early digital copy from the publisher and personally know and greatly respect the poet
Adam's Rib
Palm Sunday 2017
Recipes from a Food Pantry
Memory Garden
Streets of Gold
Acedia
Grapefruit
Mechanics
Aslan Makes a Door in the Air
Only Child
**I received an early digital copy from the publisher and personally know and greatly respect the poet
January 1, 2024
Beautiful collection of poetry
October 28, 2022
Confession: I’m not sure I’ve ever read an entire book of poetry in my life until this one. And I am quite sure that The Language of the Birds will not stay on my shelf: it will be read again…and then again. The depth of Amy’s words and her gift for capturing beauty in the smallest of places invite many return trips to these pages—a sign of good poetry. I highly recommend this book—whether you’ve read poetry before or not!
October 26, 2022
In this prize-winning collection, Amy Nemecek shares her thoughtful reflections on what is closest to her heart: her Christian faith, her appreciation of nature, and her immediate and extended family. As a music professor, I appreciated her well-informed and frequent use of musical metaphors. I was particularly intrigued by "3/2 Time", which wonderfully describes family life as "the duple of Us/with the triple of We".
The book is carefully divided into three sections. Section one interacts with the Bible, particularly focusing on events in the life of Jesus. These events are often juxtaposed with the present day, sometimes in a wonderfully surprising manner (such as in "Fixer Upper").
Section two takes us from "April Snow" through the subsequent seasons. This section ends with the short poem "Stigmata", which rounds out the section with a clever symmetry when it reaches the final line of "Crimson wounds on Easter snow".
We see more of Nemecek's cleverness in section three, which focuses on her family. Read "Back to School", and when you finish the poem, you'll realize the humor behind the title. "A Grief Preserved" (think canning preserves) creatively nods to C.S. Lewis' "A Grief Observed" while Nemecek writes in a unique way of her own grief.
Highly recommended.
The book is carefully divided into three sections. Section one interacts with the Bible, particularly focusing on events in the life of Jesus. These events are often juxtaposed with the present day, sometimes in a wonderfully surprising manner (such as in "Fixer Upper").
Section two takes us from "April Snow" through the subsequent seasons. This section ends with the short poem "Stigmata", which rounds out the section with a clever symmetry when it reaches the final line of "Crimson wounds on Easter snow".
We see more of Nemecek's cleverness in section three, which focuses on her family. Read "Back to School", and when you finish the poem, you'll realize the humor behind the title. "A Grief Preserved" (think canning preserves) creatively nods to C.S. Lewis' "A Grief Observed" while Nemecek writes in a unique way of her own grief.
Highly recommended.
November 9, 2022
Amy Nemecek's poetry is like a door opening, appealing to our sense of observation of everyday places, things and relationships. The magic of her poetry not only invites us to experience for ourselves what she spreads for our senses, but offers an infusion of Spirit, with its ways of tagging at our hearts, sprinkling wisdom and love. She moves with the months and seasons of each year and of life, revealing the divine glimpses in each.
Thank you Amy for these contemplative jewels!
Thank you Amy for these contemplative jewels!
October 28, 2022
Amy’s gift of sculpting words is both awakening to my spirit and calming to my soul. Her words color my world and are an invitation for me to ponder creation and everyday life. I looked forward to the time every day when I would engage with her book and discover new thoughts of beauty and goodness.
Sandy Davis
Sandy Davis
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews