CRANE DANCE by Lois Levinson

Poets have always been fascinated by birds. But poems about birds are typically written by people who are poets first and bird-lovers second. Not so with Lois Levinson whose skills as a birder and a poet are equally matched and equally on display in Crane Dance. Levinson brings a birder’s keen eye and a poet’s big heart to this lovely chapbook about all manner of birds. Whether she’s searching for the comical harlequin duck, watching a downy woodpecker, ‘red nape lit like a taillight’, or listening to ‘the spiral aria of the canyon wren’, these poems are beautifully shaped, sharply observed, and most of all, filled with a sense of wonder.

–John Brehm, author of Help Is on the Way

Poetry best escapes the trap of self-reference by looking outward, and these poems do just that, gazing into the not-quite-a-mirror where creatures live vibrantly among things real and sensuous. Lois Levinson’s poems move quietly, fashioned with a sure hand in language that is grounded even as it surveys the sky. Through wisdom, humor, and close observation, she evokes a deep connection to other living things, creating a habitat for us to coexist with them, learn from them, and ultimately find what binds us to them.

–Chris Ransick, author of Language for the Living and the Dead