hummingbird

Debut Poetry Collection: Watershed

Rae SpencerLeave a comment

I’m delighted to announce that my first poetry collection, Watershed (Kelsay Books), has been released in paperback and Kindle ebook formats. The paperback ($20/US) is available through the Kelsay Books website (here) or through Amazon (here), while the Kindle ebook ($9.99/US) is available through Amazon (here). (For more details, I’ve created a permanent page for Watershed here.)

Watershed front cover: a pale sunset image of clouds and sky over a pool of water, which reflects the clouds and sky, surrounded by seagrasses and shrubs. Text on the cover reads: Watershed, poems, Rae Spencer.

The poems in Watershed are mostly autobiography, written within my nostalgia for the landscapes of Tennessee, my journey into Virginia’s coastal landscapes, and my tenuous understandings of how “growing up” changes my gaze.

Photograph of a chickadee fledgling perched on our deteriorating fence. The young chickadee is shedding downy nestling feathers, while the fence’s aged wood is cracked and weathered.

As I pondered this post, how to introduce my debut collection, I finally grasped the word connection between debut and debutante. How ridiculous to contrast myself–middle-age, married, and profoundly awkward–against the idealized debutantes of historical romances.

Photograph of my reflection in a window. My face is hidden by the camera I used to capture the image. My graying hair is shoulder-length in tangled layers. I’m wearing a sleeveless shirt, so the tattoos on my hands and arms are visible–an ink collection of flora and fauna.

And yet, here I am, a debut author sending my first poetry collection into the world. I’ve loved every minute of the process, from the writing to the planning to the organizing to the submission to the rounds of editing after acceptance, all the way through this final phase of setting up author pages and posting announcements. I suppose all of this means that I’m finding my way.

Photograph of a brown thrasher fledgling hiding in a nook between a planter and our fence. The little fledgling is brown-and-tan-striped with the exaggerated beak, forehead, and eyes that render baby birds endearingly cute.

Finding my way to where?

To here, for now. To exactly where I am.

Photograph of an osprey passing overhead with a large fish grasped in its talons. The osprey’s muscular wings are fully extended, long tan-striped primary feathers spread at the tips, and its sharp beak and eyes are turned toward some unseen destination.
Photograph of a blue jay in the process of taking flight from the top of our wooden fence. The blue jay’s wings are extended, tiny black feet stretched into its launch. The bird is carrying in its beak a peanut, selected from a small pile of peanuts we left on the fence.

To a small yard in a sprawling suburb, somewhere in the middle of life’s extremes, poised between the lush luxuries of nostalgia and hope. There’s always something precarious on the horizon, but, for today, I’m here.

Photograph of a hummingbird perched on a woody vine of honeysuckle. There are no honeysuckle blooms in frame, so everything is green and brown, including the hummingbird’s feathers.

The following links lead to articles, essays, and posts that are more important and more interesting than my debut poetry collection:

The Hummingbirds

Rae Spencer6 Comments

Hummingbird August 23

Today was a fretful day for the hummingbirds. At least three were trying to stay close to the honeysuckle and the feeders, vying for a favored pair of branches in the pear tree. They chirped testily, launching attacks from far less desirable perches in the wax myrtles, occasionally looping the house in frustration.

Hummingbird August 23

They didn’t seem to mind my noisy camera, even when I moved to a chair beneath the tree. They were too busy guarding their airspace.

Hummingbird August 23

Hummingbird August 23

Hummingbird August 23

It seemed to me that every calorie they gleaned from the honeysuckle and the feeders, they quickly spent on aggression.

Hummingbird August 23

Hummingbird August 23

Hummingbird August 23

Watching them, I realized that I have often lived in similar fashion. Wasting my energy on ambition and envy, when it would have been wiser to sit still and enjoy the sunshine.

Hummingbird August 23

A Hummingbird and a Publication Note

Rae Spencer5 Comments

Hummingbird June 11

The honeysuckle has been in full bloom much of the summer, but hummingbirds are rare so far. I’ve only seen one a handful of times, and each of those visits has been brief.

Hummingbird June 11

Last summer was our first hummingbird summer, so I don’t have a feel for “normal” hummingbird activity. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens as the summer wears on.

Hummingbird June 11

Publication Note:  My poem “Doppler Effect” posted at vox poetica on June 19. Many thanks to editor Annmarie Lockhart!

Hummingbird Happenings

Rae Spencer6 Comments

Hummingbird July 29

In May, the yard’s hummingbird hopes suffered a setback when a family of house finches plucked the honeysuckle’s early blooms.

Hummingbird July 27

But the honeysuckle recovered quickly, and by the end of June there were enough blooms to attract renewed attention.

Hummingbird July 23

The salvia also bloomed steadily through June and July, adding a second source of nectar.

Hummingbird July 27

Hummingbird July 27

Now I see hummingbirds daily. They zip through the yard at reasonably predictable intervals, one or two an hour, and I occasionally find them resting high in the wax myrtle.

Hummingbird July 27

If I stretch the camera’s zoom to its limit, I am able to catch several frames before they become suspicious of my fixed attention and clicking shutter.

Hummingbird July 29

Hummingbird July 29

Hummingbird July 29

When two individuals cross paths, fierce and noisy bouts of aerial combat break out, with both birds squeaking rapidly as they dive and swerve. They are too fast for my camera during these skirmishes.

Hummingbird July 27

For that matter, they are too usually fast while feeding. These photos represent several hours of stalking. (I suspect most of my photos feature a single individual who has established a repetitive feeding pattern.)

Hummingbird July 23

Whether one bird or many, I hope the visits continue. I’m looking forward to a few more months of summer — a few more months of hot, humid afternoons in which to hone my hummingbird reflexes.

Hummingbird July 23

 

Hummingbirds and a Honeysuckle Thief

Rae Spencer4 Comments

Hummingbird May 4

At last! Hummingbirds!

Hummingbird May 4

Not a lot of hummingbirds, yet, but enough to attempt a few photos as they feed in the honeysuckle.

Yard May 3

The honeysuckle has bloomed in such profusion that I’ve been blissfully planning a long, bright summer filled with never-ending streams of hummingbirds. I should know better, by now, than to make such plans. The yard is not a blank page, waiting for me to write its future. There are always surprises, always factors I cannot control.

Honeysuckle May 10

About three days ago, the honeysuckle’s flowers began falling, sometimes before they opened. Many of the blooms appeared to have been cut at the base.

The weather has not been stormy enough to account for such damage, and I can’t find any caterpillars to blame. So I started checking periodically, watching from the kitchen window in hopes of solving the mystery. Yesterday, I caught the thief in action.

Finch May 9 3s

This little house finch was not alone. His mate was with him, and a very hungry fledgling.

Unlike hummingbirds, house finches’ beaks are not designed for sipping nectar. So they nipped off the blooms, drank the nectar from the broken end, and left a pile of empty flowers on the ground beneath them.

Honeysuckle May 10

The house finches have not returned today. Why should they? There’s nothing left to tempt them. But I suspect they’ll remember their feast, when the next wave of honeysuckle grows heavy with nectar…

Finch May 9