2020 Montana Book Award Honor Book.
2021 Spur Award Finalist.
Includes an introduction by J. Drew Lanham, author of Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts and more than 20 original monotypes by Montana Artist Storrs Bishop.
"Whatis the soul if not the sum of the flights of a thousand birds?"
A kind of field guide in poetry,Life Listpays tribute to the birds that have flown through Beaudin's years of watching and listening, through his "vain attempts to render in language the precarious circumstances of being alive." With a sharp critique of environmental, social and political issues, along with haunting ruminations on loss, love and the passing of time, these poems fill the skies with a feathered grace.
Table of Contents:
Introduction by J. Drew Lanham
Author’s Note
Birds of the Eastern United States
Canada Goose – The Things We've Lost .......................
Brown Pelican – Carbon ...................................................
Common Loon – Loon Point ...........................................
Great Blue Heron – Another Blue ...................................
Double-crested Cormorant – Mortality .........................
Killdeer – Murder of the Stag ..........................................
Anhinga – In Excelsis Deo ..................................................
Bald Eagle – My Bones ......................................................
Mourning Dove – Distances ............................................
Ring-billed Gull – Dreams … Odd .................................
American Herring Gull – Tawas Point, Earlier ............
Common Nighthawk – Religion .....................................
Great Horned Owl – Messenger .....................................
Eastern Screech Owl – Moonflower ...............................
Blue Jay – No Bird: Memory in Translation ..................
American Crow – Linguistics ..........................................
Northern Raven – Raven Wind ......................................
House Sparrow – What to Pray For ...............................
European Starling – Mortimer ........................................
Wood Thrush – Spider Web ............................................
Northern Flicker – Northern Flicker, Highway 2 ........
Red-winged Blackbird – I Declare It Spring .................
Dark-eyed Junco – The Illness of Windows ..................
Northern Cardinal – Grandma Martyn .........................
Birds of the Western United States
Snow Goose – Progress ........................................................
Trumpeter Swan – Mythology Timeline ...........................
Ruffed Grouse – Suce Creek Symphony ...........................
Common Merganser – Glacier Park Toponymy ..............
Greater Prairie Chicken – Driving 212 ...............................
Western Grebe – Snowbound .............................................
Wild Turkey – Thompson Pass ..........................................
American White Pelican – Meanwhile ..............................
Golden Eagle – Brackett Creek ............................................
Sandhill Crane – Autumn ....................................................
Spotted Sandpiper – Today’s Business ..............................
Western Gull – 100 Highways .............................................
“Railroad” Dove – Railroad Doves ....................................
Rock Dove – Domestic Feral ................................................
Eurasian Collared Dove – Poem for Yusuf Eradam ........
Pileated Woodpecker – The Hands of My Father ............
Great Horned Owl – Elegy ..................................................
Rufous Hummingbird – Strangers .....................................
Gila Woodpecker – No Comment ......................................
Cordilleran Flycatcher – 25 Bears .......................................
Black-billed Magpie – Writing at Grizfork Studio ...........
American Kestrel – Kestrel ..................................................
Mexican Jay – Mexican, Unknown .....................................
American Crow – Hotel Window: Belgrade, Montana ...
Northern Raven – Spinning .................................................
Mountain Chickadee – Old Chico, Morning ....................
Mountain Bluebird – Phases of the Moon
During the Pine Creek Fire .......
Chestnut-backed Chickadee – Dance Hall ........................
American Robin – March 12, Paradise Valley ..................
Western Meadowlark – After the Storm ...........................
Birds of Mexico and Central America
Brown Pelican – Sian Ka'an ....................................................
Yellow-crowned Night Heron – Monkey River .................
Magnificent Frigatebird – Mise-en-Scène ............................
Garden Emerald – Garden Emerald, Isla Taboga ...............
Common Ground Dove – La Tortolita Común ....................
White-winged Dove – La Paloma Aliblanca ...........................
Amazon Kingfisher – Tapestry ..............................................
Fiery-billed Araçari – This Poem is a Bowl of Water ........
Sulphur-winged Parakeet – Any Other Hammer ..............
Northern Crested Caracara – 43 Students ............................
Great-tailed Grackle – New Year’s Eve at the
Swinging Armadillo ......................
Birds of Europe
Mute Swan – Dulce et Decorum, Revisited ............................
Black-headed Gull – Visitation ..............................................
Great Crested Grebe – Shadow Wall ....................................
Greater Flamingo – A Tour of the Wines of
the Camargue .................................
Common Wood Pigeon – Chant ...........................................
Common Moorhen – “Raft of the Medusa” ........................
Western Jackdaw – Wrong Everything ................................
Carrion Crow – “Wheatfield with Crows” ..........................
Extinct Birds
Passenger Pigeon – Farm Work ............................................
Current Life List/Index ..........................................................
Acknowledgments ...................................................................
