Book spine poem: The Birds’ Disaffection

It’s a whole year since I made my last book spine poem (aka bookmash), about how swearing is good for you. Emotions run high in this new one too, but there’s no swearing, just birds. Disaffected birds. * The Birds’ Disaffection All the birds, singing In the dream house Out of sheer rage, Birds of America, Sunny side plucked – A disaffection held Against the gods In the evil day. * * Thank you to the authors: Evie Wyld, Carmen Maria Machado, Geoff Dyer, Lorrie Moore, Rita Ann Higgins, James Kelman, Anne Michaels, Peter Bernstein, and Peter Temple. Some notes on their work follow below. Evie Wyld’s debut novel gave its name to a book spine poem here in 2015, after I heard her read at the Cúirt festival in Galway. I also wrote briefly about Anne Michaels’s beautiful Fugitive Pieces. More recently I discussed linguistic elements in Lorrie Moore’s novel A Gate at the Stairs. James Kelman appeared in my earliest set of bookmashes, back in 2010. When I was putting the current one together, I…