Passings: Poetry by Holly J. Hughes
Passenger pigeon. Carolina parakeet. Eskimo curlew. In this timely collection of elegies, award-winning poet Holly J. Hughes gives voice to these and other bird species that no longer fill our skies. If their names sound as a litany of the hundreds of species we’ve lost, these fifteen poems ring as a reminder that their stories are still with us. In clear, well-crafted poems, Hughes serves as witness to these birds’ stories, offering each a poignant voice that speaks a cautionary tale for the many species whose habitats face threats from climate change. In her impassioned afterword, Hughes reminds us that it’s not too late to learn from these birds’ extinction and take action to protect the species that remain. “Take note,” she writes. “These birds are still singing to us. We must listen.”
Recipient of an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation in 2017, the first edition of Passings sold out. Wandering Aengus Press is honored to bring this chapbook back into print and give the birds a voice again.
Listen to "Passenger Pigeon," composed by celebrated composer Edie Hill in response to the poem by the same title and performed by The Crossing Choir.
And read a review in Musical America by Clive Paget about the album, Born, featuring works by Edie Hill:
"Hill's Spectral Spirits, which premiered in Philadelphia and New York in 2019, addresses the plight of endangered or recently extinct birds in a 30-minute meditation on nature and loss... Hill takes four poems from Passingsby Holly J. Hughes: "Passenger Pigeon," "Carolina Parakeet," "Eskimo Curlew," and "Ivory-Billed Woodpecker." For each bird, she fashions a musical "ceremony" by framing the Hughes poems with eyewitness accounts written by people who experienced the birds firsthand as well as sequences riffing on their original Latin names and more commonly used nicknames. It's ear-ravishing music, full of bare harmonies and melismatic solo lines, and the poetry is to die for (listen to eyewitness Henry David Thorough on the "Passenger Pigeon," or any of Hughes's evocative poems ).
Recipient of an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation in 2017, the first edition of Passings sold out. Wandering Aengus Press is honored to bring this chapbook back into print and give the birds a voice again.
Listen to "Passenger Pigeon," composed by celebrated composer Edie Hill in response to the poem by the same title and performed by The Crossing Choir.
And read a review in Musical America by Clive Paget about the album, Born, featuring works by Edie Hill:
"Hill's Spectral Spirits, which premiered in Philadelphia and New York in 2019, addresses the plight of endangered or recently extinct birds in a 30-minute meditation on nature and loss... Hill takes four poems from Passingsby Holly J. Hughes: "Passenger Pigeon," "Carolina Parakeet," "Eskimo Curlew," and "Ivory-Billed Woodpecker." For each bird, she fashions a musical "ceremony" by framing the Hughes poems with eyewitness accounts written by people who experienced the birds firsthand as well as sequences riffing on their original Latin names and more commonly used nicknames. It's ear-ravishing music, full of bare harmonies and melismatic solo lines, and the poetry is to die for (listen to eyewitness Henry David Thorough on the "Passenger Pigeon," or any of Hughes's evocative poems ).