A Field Guide to the Birds
of
Lorine Niedecker’s
Collected Works

Mourning Dove  :  Mourning Dove 23
Gull  :  When Ecstasy Is Inconvenient 25
Rail : Don’t shoot the rail 92
Blackbirds : To see the man who took care of our stock 103
Geese : To see the man who took care of our stock 103
Owl : A monster owl 103
Killdeer : Audubon 108
The poems called Goose : To a Maryland editor 110
Chicks : Summer’s away, I traded my chicks 110
Tit-wit : Summer’s away, I traded my chicks 110
Rose-breast[ed Grosbeak] : Sunday’s motor-cars 127
Hummingbird : Lugubre for a child 128
Cuckoo : If I were a bird 130
Parakeets : The elegant office girl 136
Sora Rail : What bird would light 137
Sora Rail : Nearly landless and on the way to water 137
Pheasants : Nearly landless and on the way to water 138
Sandhill Crane : Thure Kumlien 145
Solitary Tattler : Adirondack Summer 151
Peewee : Adirondack Summer 151
Owl : Energy glows at the lips 162
Peewee: On hearing the wood peewee 167
Ducks : People, people 172
Waxwings : July, waxwings 174
Mourning Dove : Hear / where her snow-grave is 181
Gulls: How white the gulls
Flamingo : Florida 193
Avocet : To whom / can I leave 204
Duck : Early morning corn 206
Starlings : The park “a darling walk for the mind” 212
Robin :  The park “a darling walk for the mind” 212
Whooping Cranes : Churchill’s Death 219
Cranes : A student 221
Gull : Lake Superior (Iron the common element) 232
Pigeon : Lake Superior (Wild Pigeon) 235
Veery : We are what the seas have made us 240
Mergansers : Mergansers 246
Gulls : Wintergreen Ridge 257
Pigeons : Wintergreen Ridge 257
Canvasbacks : Paean to Place 263
Sora Rail : Paean to Place 263
Hummingbird : Paean to Place 264
Peewee : Paean to Place 265
Solitary Plover : Paean to Place 265
Woodcocks :  Paean to Place 266
Yellowhead blackbirds : Not all harsh sounds displease 271
Great blue heron : Peace 290
Stone buntings : His carpets flowered 294
Penguins : Darwin 297
Pigeons : Darwin 298