{"id":102728,"date":"2016-09-15T16:52:47","date_gmt":"2016-09-15T20:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=102728"},"modified":"2016-09-15T17:04:13","modified_gmt":"2016-09-15T21:04:13","slug":"adam-reads-guide-western-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/15\/adam-reads-guide-western-birds\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam Reads The Guide to Western Birds<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"terns\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Patty Seyburn\u2019s poem \u201cAdam Reads\u00a0<\/em>The Guide to Western Birds\u201d appeared in our Fall 2001 issue<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>Her latest collection is\u00a0<\/em>Hilarity<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

… let fowl fly above the earth in the
open firmament of heaven. <\/em>Genesis 1:20<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This book is bliss.
It includes a bird\u2019s topography\u2014
(who knew that fowl had eyebrows? superciliaries<\/em>)
a wrist, a rump, a nape.
Once again I\u2019m caught assuming
human privilege, as if only our<\/em> parts merit names.
We are mere givers of names.
Parts, another parable.<\/p>\n

It tells me the right questions to ask,
which No One ever told me.
Size? Shape? Wing? Bill? Tail?
How does it behave? Treeclimber? Swims? Wades?
Pay its bills? Struts? Darts? Variations
on the V-formation? Mating trill?
Rump patches, wing bars, patterns.
Status is rareness, and matters.<\/p>\n

The drawings vivid, yet I could not
tell between terns
(Arctic, Forster\u2019s, Common, Least, Aleutian)\u2014
a clue to my undiscerning nature.
Larger pictures assigned the single-sexed\u2014
more room for androgyny in this small tome
that fits in my hand, small as if to indicate
how little I grasp, even having schooled<\/p>\n

where I did. This must be
the New Tree of Knowledge, ripe with detail:
raven\u2019s Roman-nose bill, whip-poor-will\u2019s hyphens.
Ringed turtledove lives in L.A. city parks.
Family Mimidae are top-notch crooners.
The rose-throated becard promises
a thin, slurred whistle, seeoo\u2014<\/em>
I\u2019m told that\u2019s how I sound when asleep.<\/p>\n

I dream of Paradise: a Lazuli Bunting, a wisp
of Black-Throated Green Warbler\u2019s lisp:
zoo zee zoo zee zoo<\/em> (zoo<\/em> lower, zee <\/em>on the same pitch).
Now, with few conifers near, I will make do,
as I do \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0as we do
with the crow, sparrow, starling
and mockingbird that grace
my eaves, their gifts of already fallen, still
falling eucalyptus and bamboo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Patty Seyburn\u2019s poem \u201cAdam Reads\u00a0The Guide to Western Birds\u201d appeared in our Fall 2001 issue.\u00a0Her latest collection is\u00a0Hilarity.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1062,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1188],"tags":[17673,17674,3573,7393,24570,19907,13646,24566,24565,3539,165,24569,24568,24567,24571],"class_list":["post-102728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-archive","tag-adam","tag-adam-and-eve","tag-bible","tag-birds","tag-fowl","tag-from-the-archive","tag-genesis","tag-hilarity","tag-patty-seyburn","tag-poem","tag-poetry","tag-terns","tag-the-guide-to-western-birds","tag-tree-of-knowledge","tag-warbler"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAdam Reads \u2018The Guide to Western Birds\u2019<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A poem from the archive.\" 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