A Whistling of Birds

Author: Isobel Dixon

Poetry by individual poets

Published on 22 June 2023 by Nine Arches Press in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 124 pages, 10 black and white illustrations
156 x 234 x 15mm | 258g

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. 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.