Like the burgeoning sounds of morning from which Dawn Chorus takes its
name, these poems emerge from the darkness of urban isolation into
brilliant wilderness. More than half of the world’s humans now live in
cities, waking to the rhythm of artificial light, lulled by the hum of
machines. We sense that some important part of us has atrophied but
cannot name it. Dawn Chorus is a warning and a celebration. Pettway’s
lines remind us how deeply we harm ourselves when we turn away from
nature and invite us to revel in the rediscovery of our wildest selves.
“The
Alice Pettway of Dawn Chorus is an urban fabulist and pastoral
realist—a modern-day Arcimboldo who rebuilds herself repeatedly in these
poems, at the fulcrum between outworn civilization and fragile
wilderness. Dawn Chorus is an escape from denial: it refuses to be cut
off any longer. Even as the city shapes these poems, nature sings its
way back to the foreground. Without merganser and yarrow, without a
rebalancing, we’re undone.”
William Pierce
co-editor, AGNI
“These
poems allow us to inhale the aroma of Alaska's shores, its wild iris
buds, the intricacy of each stone upon stone, and we can feel Pettway's
interaction intensify with every moose skull, cottonwood tree, and
merganser duck”
Paul B. Roth
author of Moments in Place
“These beautiful poems will uplift you with their engaging story and their marvelous craft.”
John Morgan
author of The Hungers of the World:
New and Selected Later Poems