Spring Equinox, Ostara, Moon of Robins Chirping, Frogs Riveting

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.

Before the Sun Rises takes us into the deeper currents of natural and human landscapes, gracing our heart and unbolting our mind. Sharing encounters with crows and deer, cancer and refugees, Morgan once again gifts us with powerful cascading images, compassionately illuminating challenging realities of modern life. Each poem is a revelation, an inspiration, a reminder of the sacredness of every moment and every being.

Gwendolyn Morgan has graced us with a new collection of poems that entreat us to lean into the world, into the vital conversation that awaits all who pay attention. She extends a thread of intimate observations through these poems, inviting us to remember the real world of nuthatches, chickadees, black-tail deer and mergansers. Woven into this vivid landscape, Gwendolyn extends her tender touch to the sorrows and suffering of modernity – cancer, capitalism, greed, violence, suicide – all seen through the heart of compassion and transmuted by the alchemy of her eloquence. We are awakened and healed through her generous offerings.

This is a book of magic spells, calling on birds, acts of art, blessings, and humble ritual to turn a time of illness to a quest for awareness. Small changes work the mysteries: not ‘shadow of death’ but ‘death of shadow.’ Not first-person predictable, but third-person intimate, a voice filled with surprises inhabiting daily life, life ritual, spoken scripture, ‘the painful juxtaposition of various needs’ converging polarities toward a hawk’s whole vision, a thrush’s solo song. The multiple realms of the awakened mind here (in titles like ‘Sturgeon, Osprey, Gemini New Moon’) give this writer and her readers a place to stand in a complex world, a place to understand, a place to heal, connect, be whole.

Gwendolyn Morgan’s poems celebrate her intimacy with the natural world, which is rendered with luminous clarity. Although wholly grounded in the earth, she is primarily a poet of the spiritual life. The quiet subtlety and reverence of her language belies the tough, forthright inquiries that lie below. She’s a poet who asks the big questions, and her answers are full of grace and surprise.