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Illustrator David Sibley and actor H. Jon Benjamin will face off in the bird illustration battle of the century during BirdNote's Year-end Celebration and Auction!
In this episode, writer Camille T. Dungy shares the poem “Clearing” from her new book, Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden.
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"Clearing" by Camille T. Dungy
Written by Mark Bramhill
Mark Bramhill: This is BirdNote.
Today, we’re sharing a poem by writer Camille T. Dungy.
Camille T. Dungy: “Clearing”
all night the wind blows & my mind
my mind is like the hawthorn that loses
limbs they litter the ground crush
the black-eyed susan scatter buds
over rows of lettuce bean sprouts
whose greens are clusters of worry
in raised beds blown leaves & cracked limbs
threaten our foundation water backs up
in gutters seeps into the house’s walls
but my mind my mind is not in the house
in the yard’s far corner the eye of my mind rests
on a hawthorn branch shaken snapping
hectic then still the day dawns
without anger the blue jay I’ve looked for
pushes sky off his crest how splendid
his wings & tail it’s not so much
that before this he’d hidden himself
it’s only he favored a roost
I could not see until the storm thinned the tree
[Blue Jay call]
Mark Bramhill: This poem is from Camille’s new book, Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden. Learn more at BirdNote dot org. I’m Mark Bramhill.
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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Plan & Elevation: IV. The Orangery composed by Caroline Shaw, performed by the Attaca Quartet
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Blue Jay ML13448 recorded by Randolph Little and James Kimball.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2023 BirdNote July 2023
Narrator: Mark Bramhill
ID# dungyc-01-2023-04-05 dungyc-01