Paper Bird

By Robin Behn

Paper Bird, a collection of poetry, is the 1987 winner of the Edith Shiffert Prize in Poetry in the AWP Award Series. The poems of Robin Behn's superb first collection, Paper Bird, exhibit a lyric ease matched only by their startling power. There is a richness here, a charge and physicality, that is rare in recent American poetry. Whether writing poems of the family constellation or elegies for those lost, both in and out of love, Robin Behn allows her voice to sail out along the currents of the heart, and each of her songs is accompanied by the rhythm of wings--a bird's, an angel's, or even death--as it rises from the page. This exquisitely composed and remarkably mature volume of poetry marks the arrival of an important new poet. --David St. JohnDrowning is the central metaphor of Robin Behn's fine first collection of poems, and if when reading it our own lives seem to pass before our eyes, it is by virtue of the poet's strong, imaginative gift. The images of this book connect to each other with the logic and authority of dreams, the reader's dreams as well as the writer's. This is a beautifully crafted, deeply felt book. --Linda Pastan

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0896721647
• ISBN13: 9780896721647
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Texas Tech University Press
• Length: 88 Pages

Customer Reviews

Rich language and beautiful imagery

Robin Behn's Paper Bird uses drowning as the thread that binds this collection of poems together. She swims backwards through her own memories, subconciously linking these stories together with a deft handling of figurative langugage and finely crafted lines. Behn's work is provacative and strong, pushing deeper into dark currents, treading water in the past and drifting into the future. Her images surface with a lyrical disconnectedness, similar to dream images -- the result is eerie and mystical. Throughout the entire book I found myself marveling over her ability to meld dissonant images and themes together by presenting them with courage and clarity. In particular, the poems "Geographies," "Origin," and "Living with Sister" stand out as stellar examples of Behn's superb control of language and imagery. This is definitely a poetry collection worth seeking out; I come back to it again and again, each time finding something new lurking just below the surface.