Working in the Birdhouse by Justin Evans

Wonderful poet and fellow blogger Justin Evans kindly asked me blurb his newly-released chapbook, Working in the Birdhouse, from FootHills Publishing. The finished book arrived late last week and it's one of the most gorgeous looking chaps I've ever seen. Beautiful paper, a great typeface, the string binding and the wonderful cover image (above). It doesn't seem right to review a book I've blurbed, so I'll offer up that blurb and one of my favorite poems from the collection. This chapbook is a must!

There is a restless energy behind the poems in Justin Evans' Working in the Birdhouse -- from the unsettled birds that weave and wing their way through the pages to the narrator's treks through the topography of interstates, deserts and even the Garden of Eden. Evans' curiosity about how humans respond and coexist with nature and each other are at the heart of this well-crafted collection. -- Collin Kelley

Over Christmas Break, I Walk to Camden

You might think I walked all that way

to see the home where Whitman died,

but I actually came to see the jail

across the street.

I wanted to watch the women stand

on the sidewalk, send love notes

via semaphore to guys like Terry and Alan

who forgot to pay their fines, or Maxi who wrote

one bad check too many at the A&P.

Theirs is a love spelled out

in gestures, a silence that is forced

to transcend the moment, last them

anywhere from six to eighteen months,

a love born long after the death of Walt.

To tell you the truth, the walk home

taught me more poetry than my books.

I was the new girl, learning to sign

from the women with only weeks to go,

practicing along the turnpikes and cafes

marking the progress of my own return.

-- Justin Evans, from Working in the Birdhouse