Bird Notes - Softcover

Hughes, Betsy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1635343321 ISBN 13: 9781635343328

Publisher: Finishing Line Press, 2017

Synopsis

Bird Notes  is a collection of 24 poems blending the traditional sonnet form with a clear modern voice.  Some subjects are drawn from nature ("Audubon in verse," according to another poet), while other birds are mythical and metaphorical.  Readers will observe an amazing variety:  Northern gannets diving for fish in Scotland; a snowy owl in an Ohio field; ring-billed gulls on the Outer Banks of Kitty Hawk, N.C.; a finch in a nursing home aviary; an indigo macaw in an ecological art exhibit.  Readers will explore superstition in "A Murder of Crows," theology in the sparrows of "A Question of Disparity," and psychology in the albatross of "Guilt."  A few of these poems appeared in Hughes's national award-winning sonnet collection Breaking Weather ((2014); "Phoenix" won a first place award in the 2016 Ohio Poetry Day competition.  Betsy Hughes taught English for 30 years at The Miami Valley School in Dayton, Ohio, where she lives with her husband Jim Hughes, Wright State University emeritus professor of English.  Together they enjoy discussion and critique with the Wright Library Poets and the Dayton Poetry Circle.

About this title

About the Author

With an abiding passion for poetry, Betsy Hughes graduated from Vassar College, earned her M.A. in English from The University of Dayton, and taught English for thirty years at The Miami Valley School. In retirement, she has moderated courses in literature, creative writing, and the arts for The University of Dayton Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Her appreciation for poetry continues to be nourished by her writing friends in the Wright Library Poets and the Dayton Poetry Circle, as well as the Ohio Poetry Association and Ohio Poetry Day. Betsy Hughes was winner of the 2013 Stevens Poetry Manuscript Competition sponsored by the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. Breaking Weather was published by the NFSPS Press in 2014. Her poems have also appeared in the Society of Classical Poets Journal, the Mad River Review, Mock Turtle Zine, and several anthologies published by the Ohio Poetry Association, including the recent ekphrastic anthology A Rustling and Waking Within. Betsy is fascinated by the sonnet genre because of its inherent qualities of sound and rhythm and its wedding of discipline and freedom. Many of her sonnets relate to nature, as in this collection. Others employ the traditional form for contemporary subjects, with special focus on environmental, social, and political issues.

Edition details

• Publisher: Finishing Line Press
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1635343321
• ISBN 13: 9781635343328
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 38