In this fine collection of poetry and short prose, poet Gwendolyn Morgan skillfully juxtaposes extreme times with ordinary observation. Her poems demand we bear unflinching witness to humankind’s inhumanity and suffering. But standing in steadfast opposition to each dirge is the reprieve of dailiness (“I put spinach tortillas in our cart. Yellow peaches. Sweet Walla Walla onions.”) and the poet’s exquisitely rendered evidence of the constancy and beauty of nature (“Each day birds remind me who I am.”). Over and again, Morgan guides us to an awareness of the “wisdom of grief, the gratitude of wood sorrel and salal”. The stolid, unembellished constancy of nature’s presence in these poems, and the simple acts of living and loving, show us the way forward if we would but heed this keen and passionate observer of the best and the worst.

“Flight Feathers is an important book, essential in time of Covid-19 and climate disaster. It reflects the grieving parts of us all and the sustenance of the natural world like a maternal heartbeat weaving in and out of consciousness. It offers the deep comfort that comes from naming both pain and grace, invokes the “chalice of golden chanterelles” that hold us all. Poems range between this coast and the other, grounding us where we live: a young man refusing to wear a mask, the privilege of tilth certified organic. Poems reflect walks between the forest and professionals providing compassionate care for the dying under fluorescent lights, the visceral presence of loose stool, coffee, bleach and lavender. Morgan reminds us of deeper rifts, where “spiritual distress smells like sepsis.” She finds, and brings us, a counterpoint to despair in the watershed, the woods where she walks. Flight Feathers is a book I’ll reach for again and again. It is a witness to Covid time, racism, global violence and the red fox in the suburban watershed, a gift to us all.”

Ecstatic, meditative, and deeply wise, Gwendolyn Morgan’s Flight Feathers is a clarion call of hope, renewal, and healing based in the sacrality of nature and the lyric tradition.  “A grateful heart illuminates the space around it”:  her powerful voice rises above the din of our political, ecological, and apocalyptic crises, as a soothsayer and visionary witness for our times.

To open this precious book is to be transported into a realm where time bursts into life, nature reveals itself as family, and the thirst for justice unfolds into joy. “How the wind lifts the bones  the melodies”!  These poems are true gifts of love.