The work of a much loved Canadian birding poet Songs for the Songs of Birds celebrates the way birds "articulate the air" and considers what the world would be without them. Narrated by the Author, the soundtrack features bird song recordings identified to species. Listen to poetry while learning bird songs! Many of the poems in this selection have appeared in previous printed collections of poetry by Don McKay. Many are found in Camber (McClelland & Stewart, 2004), some in Strike / Slip (McClelland & Stewart, 2006) and a few make their first appearance in this selection. Poems selected and read by Don McKay Recorded and mixed by Janet Russell Field Recordings of birds by Dave Fifield Cover photograph of a Song Sparrow by Dave Fifield Cover design by Mike Mouland With thanks to Stan Dragland. the poems in aornis alibi field marks 2 close up of a sharp shinned hawk song for the song of the white throated sparrow song for the song of the chipping sparrow song for the song of the common raven song for the song of the canada geese early instruments midwintering the bellies of fallen breathing sparrows adagio for a fallen sparrow field marks bird that never wert song for the songs of the common loon pine siskin song for the song of the varied thrush song for the song of the wood thrush ascent with thrushes ravens at play over mount work sometimes a voice lift drag load hover angle of attack plummet glide hang time turbulence sometimes a voice 2 but nature has her darker side nocturnal migrants a barbed wire fence meditates on a goldfinch summer at leith gynecology UFO Praise for Don McKay ”These exuberantly musical and shrewd poems are ecological in the fullest sense of the word: they seek to elucidate our relationships with our fragile dwelling places both on the earth and in our own skins.” — New York Times Book Review “He is our most inventive poet, a master of metaphor and a stylist with impeccable tone.” — Patrick Lane, Globe and Mail “In McKay’s work, attention is the foundation of a poetics and an ethics in which otherness is respected, indeed cherished, for its ability to unhouse.” — Judges’ citation, 2007 Griffin Poetry Prize Audio Book Reviews "If you're a poetry-loving bird-watcher, this is for you. " — J.L.B., Audiofile ”This CD would be entirely worthwhile if the goal was merely to collect all of the poems about birds Don McKay has written over the years. What is lovely about the CD is that it does collect McKay’s bird poems in one place and allows us to hear them read in the author’s own musical voice (think Dylan Thomas without the accent and all the booze); it is also augmented with the actual songs of birds recorded in situ by Dave Fifield. Not only that (I’m beginning to sound like a K-Tel advertisement – if you act now …) not only that, but some of the most valuable bonus features are the comments McKay makes between poems. “We love [birds],” he sys, “because they are intimate with the air … Birds make us sense how crucial [air] is; they articulate the very atmosphere around us.” The attention these poems pay to birds is also attention to the world and in that way, the Songs for the Songs of Birds encourages our own attentiveness to all things. Put the CD on and “Let’s go. / For we shall be changed.”" — Jay Ruzesky, The Malahat Review