9 poems
from o oio
Begin with the word
starling.
This is a story about flight.
or falling.
Hold in your mind the weight of a bird.
Feel in your hand her feathers shuffling.
Imagine the brightness of day breaking across her beak.
Consider: can a bird break a night
into day?
or:
Begin with the word brightness.
This is a story about night breaking
a bird.
Hold in your mind the weight of her feathers.
Feel in your body her mind shuffling.
Imagine the night breaking across her body.
Consider: can a hand break a bird?
or:
Begin with the word story.
This is a bird about night falling into body.
Hold her feathers in your beak.
Imagine her
body.
Consider: can a shuffling brightness
break?
or:
Begin with
your
hand
shuffling
the night across her body.
Begin with
your mind .
feel your hand
breaking her beak
:
the weight of her feathers
falling .
Imagine her
shuffling bright
think wingbone think hollow
think wingbone think
hollow see black
capped chicadee
stayed through
winter a pine bough think
pine pollen see it lift
in light think
so delicate a thing
can lift so fragile
a body
can stay see
sorrow how
it stays
a body through
winter and pine pollen bird
bone see rime
rime of ice on blush
grass reflections of
bone through glass a
body did not
stay the winter how winter
did not
stay
think lift think blush
grass how sky
turns soft relieves
its clouds of winter think
snowflake think try
and lift try and
lift see
flight—
how it wings a body
from bone
think
lift
in light
a
fragile
sorrow
through
winter
soft
flight––
think hollow
wingbone
see
it lift
fragile
sorrow how
winter winter
relieves
flight
from bone
ink
see black
bird
blush
bone through glass
think
try
and lift and
lift and
hollow
winter winter
think hollow
winter
light
lift so fragile
a
sorrow
s
o
soft
a body
Robin Walter lives in Fort Collins, Colorado. She received her MFA in poetry from Colorado State University, where she now teaches. Her work has appeared in Poets.org, West Branch, Wildness and elsewhere. Her manuscript Little Mercy was selected by Kazim Ali as a finalist for Omnidawn's 1st/2nd book prize. Her manuscript 'o oio' is a finalist for the 2021 Interim Test Site Poetry Series and was a semi-finalist for the series in 2020. Her chapbook of the same title was a finalist for the 2020 Broken River Prize judged by Kaveh Akbar. She was the recipient of a 2021 Academy of American Poets Prize.