Backyard by Ear
(listen to the poem, read by Diane R. Wiener)
I am the birder of unmatched eyes:
heiress of sight the sun betrays
I hear black wings, red
breasts, gray caps — calculate
the cardinal trills, attend
the chickadees’ antiphon.
Fish crows calling above the shed —
two bursts in rhythm, an oboe laugh.
The jays trade screams, the starlings rasp,
the rain tree rustles against the fence,
a mourning dove sounds its hollow flute.
Overhead wings the chimney swift
crossing the sky in squeaky arcs — my dog
snuffles in the hardy sage, the rosemary
his fragrant friend. Slight stems measure the April wind.
Then begins the drum: red-bellied woodpeckers
on generous limbs. The oak has been reclaimed.
This poem is featured in POETCHRY, an accessible outdoor art exhibit in Cobourg, Ontario, and appears in Wordgathering with the author’s permission.
An unfiltered color photograph of the poem “Backyard by Ear” by Emily K. Michael as it appears on a wooden picnic table in the POETCHRY outdoor art exhibit. The poem is engraved in dark brown sans serif lettering on a light wood grain background. In the photograph, the letter “d” in the word “wind” in the line beginning with “his fragrant friend…” is not shown.
Read Emily K. Michael’s essay, “Too Close to Text: How Writing Revives a Blind Poet,” in this issue of Wordgathering.
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About the Author
Emily K. Michael is a blind poet, musician, and writing teacher from Jacksonville, FL. Since 2016, she has edited poetry for Wordgathering. Her poetry and essays have appeared in Wordgathering, The Hopper, Artemis Journal, The South Carolina Review, Nine Mile Magazine, Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics, BREVITY’s Nonfiction Blog, Barriers and Belonging, Welcome to the Resistance, and AWP Writer’s Notebook. Her first book, Neoteny: Poems (Finishing Line Press, 2019), includes a finalist for The Atlantis Award as well as a nominee for The Pushcart Prize. Emily’s work centers on ecology, disability, and music. Emily is passionate about grammar, singing, birding, and guide dogs. Find more of her work at http://emilykmichael.com.