A Whistling of Birds

Isobel Dixon's collection of poems, A Whistling of Birds, explores the relationship between humans and the natural world, drawing inspiration from various writers and artists. The poems are lyrical, vigorous, and inventive, with a strong sense of landscape and a thoughtful dialogue between artist and poet. They offer new perspectives on life on earth and provide moments of pleasure and gratitude.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 124 pages
Publication date: 22 June 2023
Publisher: Nine Arches Press

Elizabeth Bishop's hawkweed, John Berryman's hummingbirds, Ted Hughes's burnt fox - the birds, beasts, and flowers of Isobel Dixon's new collection are at times kin to D.H. Lawrence, whose essay "Whistling of Birds" lends this book its name, though each poem here is its own vivid testament to the natural world, and our often troubled and troubling place in it.

Lyrical, vigorous, inventive, A Whistling of Birds is at times in conversation with Lawrence's iconic collection, Birds, Beasts, and Flowers, but also ranges widely through the worlds of other writers and makers - from the Venerable Bede to Emily Dickinson, Georgia O'Keeffe to Glenn Gould, and a wealth of other connections closely examined and delicately drawn.

An abundance of apricots in Santa Fe; bats, bees, tortoises, snakes, the generous body of a whale. Threaded throughout is the beautiful complexity and vulnerability of the planet, and the joy and difficulty of making art.

Douglas Robertson's finely detailed images also speak of a close connection to the green world, ocean, and sky, and a thoughtful dialogue between artist and poet.

With its resonant elegies and notes of celebration, this is a collection that flexes, hums, and brims with energy, yet surely draws you in to its quiet, reflective heart.

Isobel Dixon's writing is lit by a fierce sense of landscape. She is newly touched by the tiniest northern flowers, haunted still by powerful spirits of the south. Her work is visually exuberant; its sounds, delicious, especially when bound by rhyme.

Dixon's lines flash with humour and tenderness. Her poems marry exactitude to emotion. In both, they are memorable.

As Lawrence says, "The essential quality of poetry is that it makes a new effort of attention." Isobel Dixon's A Whistling of Birds does just that. Doing so.

ISBN-13: 9781913437725