Bird Slips, Moon Glows —by Linda H. Y. Hegland

Nonfiction / Poetry

Cyberwit.net

First Edition: November 25, 2019

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 8194348579

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-8194348573

43 pages

4 Stars

Reviewed by Lenora Rain-Lee Good 

The Dedication of this book makes it worth the price of admission. It’s to her high school counsellor, and it’s marvelous and sets the tone for the volume.

 “Seek your small, bare rhythm / inside the thrumming cadence / of wind, and water, / birdsong, and quivering fish. / Listen to the feat of becoming.”  This first stanza from the first poem, Listen, shows us how we become, then are able to enter into conversations with the poet.

Ms. Hegland’s poems sing, whether as a trembling leaf about to fall (Covenant) or out on the prairie as a child, a woman, where she finds “Bird bones thin as glass,”. She has an affinity for the beauty of nature whether from the coyote who just ate to a small pebble she picks up, admires, and pockets.

We are taken to visit death, to old age, to dancing with bees. She is homesick for her prairie and makes me homesick for a prairie upon which I never lived, never knew. Her poem about drawing, sketching, from live models made me wish my uncle still lived. He would have loved the truth of it.

Do I have to have a favorite in every book I read? Yes, but I never share, because my favorite may not be yours and I want you to buy and read this book and find your own favorites. We all bring our own stories to whatever we read, but I do admit I really liked Suzanne.

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Lenora Rain-Lee Good recently returned to her beloved Pacific Northwest from Albuquerque, New Mexico to dance in the rain and write. Part Native American (Catawba) she is fascinated with history, and often incorporates historical events in her writing. Her poetry has most recently appeared in Quill & Parchment and Five Willows Literary Review, both online literary magazines. Washington 129, anthology of Washington State Poetry, chosen by Tod Marshall, the Washington State Poet Laureate, 2016-2018 and her collection, Blood on the Ground: Elegies for Waiilatpu published by Redbat Press. She has been an Author-Editor in the aerospace industry, and an Instructor in the WAC. Besides writing and selling her poetry, she has sold novels, radio plays, photographs, and even a quilt. However, she's joking about dancing in the rain. One, she doesn't dance, and two, she lives in the desert part of Washington.