Apology for The Book of Creatures

Dan Beachy-Quick

with artwork by Stephanie Bacon

A sample poem from the book.

[Preface]

Song commits melody, words commit memory

to words, to world

                                    a syllable refers

to breath not bird, a music underneath

the bird sings the bird

                                           not known

not spoken, not known

and if by bird I mean the world

I mean this world

                                   a bird sings

a song beneath a song

                                            not what I know

pine siskin in pine, water thrush deep in wood,

ignorance no vice, knowledge no good