Birdwatching in Wartime

by Jeffrey Thomson

Birdwatching in Wartime takes place around the globe, but finds its home in the rainforests of Costa Rica and Peru. The diverse and complexly layered environments of the neotropics are the perfect setting for these poems―both linguistically and atmospherically. Thomson explores the way questions of beauty, grief, and desire are filtered through particular landscapes and natural images, and along the way metaphor, memory, violence, and eros all combine to rewrite and alter the human experience of the natural world. As his poems break apart the traditional Linnean categories of natural history and drive the wedge of human memory and desire into the gaps, Thomson ultimately reveals and revels in the fact that the narratives we bring into the world color and shape that world to such an extent that we cannot easily judge what is the world and what the story.

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Paperback

First published February 8, 2009

Reviews

[Marbenele]

This book of poems proves to be deeply challenging, but full of beauty and disturbing messages about our environmental conditions. Its function within poetry is highly important: long poems such as "Birdwatching in Wartime" help us to feel the impact of a natural catastrophe that is already happening. "Trauma is what we carry", but poetry will attempt to save us through metaphors and awareness.

[Ron Mohring]

I read it twice through, with a sustained pleasure I rarely feel from a poetry collection. Love to read it but seldom feel as wholly engaged as I did--do--with this book. I'm going to go look for his earlier titles.

[Kyle]

I loved the book. I'll be rereading some poems in the coming week to try and get a better hold of them.