Mining the Bright Birds: Poems of Longing for Home
My new book is here. Unexpected joy.
After Psalm Forty-Five One
He gives us means to write His praises
The breath to carry every thought
To hearts and out again to raise us
Above, mere creatures whom He has wrought.
We alone hold pen and ink,
Brush and pencil paper thin.
No other image bears His likeness
But ours His work to enter in.
Opening poem from Mining the Bright Birds: Poems of Longing for Home
When I jumped into Substack and was three posts in, I wrote about the ‘squishiness’ of life and surrendering our plans, particularly as it pertains to writing projects. My second book of poetry, Mining the Bright Birds: Poems of Longing for Home found a publishing home earlier this year at a small press in Oregon. Unlike my previous two books which are self-published, the timing of this book’s release was entirely out of my hands. A happy but somewhat helpless situation to be in, I might add. This writing life can be weird. The labor of love over which you pined and planned and felt super-protective comes out according to someone else’s schedule.
So, here we are, Mining the Bright Birds is being released waaaay sooner than expected. No time to gather a proper launch team, no organizing a party or an official book release. While I had planned on a launch date of October 1st, the editor in charge said the date had seeped into September 1st. Then, surprise! There’s my book smack dab in the middle of August. Rather than a burst out of the gate, this has been more like the trickle of a stream at the end of summer and not the crashing of a giant wave.1
But no matter—I’m not as concerned about the timing of when people find my poems as I am that a poem will find them just when its needed.
A Bit About the Book (from the back cover)
“The manner in which we chart our lives is less a straight line and more a song cycle moving upward into the future, circles growing closer as we move towards the center, where God is. Ecclesiastes declares that God has set Heaven in our hearts, our true home, and so we journey, often in the dark.
The poems in Mining the Bright Birds-Poems of Longing for Home reflect this circular, upward journey, one of change and growth. The closer we move towards God, the more like ourselves we become.
The invitation to discover our deepest longings is often a call to lean into the many ways we express ourselves—as poet or painter or simply a person whose hand holds onto our Creator’s on the pathway home.
Mining the Bright Birds offers a glimmer of light to shine the way.”
As it turns out, the release of Mining the Bright Birds was an unexpected present, arriving five days after my 71st birthday. Sometimes it takes a while to decide what you want to be when you grow up. ‘Poet’ as a vocation seems a perfect fit, no matter how long it took to decide. I am in good company, inspired by later-in-life writers like Madeleine L’Engle and Laura Ingalls Wilder, who waited years for their work to be published and kept at it.
Timing is everything, in life and in books.
I am only one in a chorus of many gifted writers pointing the way towards Heaven and home. It is a joy to be alive to do so and journey with you as we find our way, Mining the Bright Birds.
You can find Mining the Bright Birds on my website or via Amazon (print & Kindle), Bookshop, and the Wipf & Stock website and as an ebook.