Light of Wings: Poems

By Sarah Kotchian

This haunting collection merges spirit and nature in a voice both elegiac and celebratory. Kotchian explores our deep connection to the natural world, one increasingly at risk even as it continues to surprise and inspire. From meditations on the dangers of global warming to supporting a friend with cancer, from grieving the loss of her own mother to celebrating nature from New Mexico to a wild Scottish island, the poems celebrate both solitude and companionship and enlarge our concept of belonging and community, offering us threads of resilience, persistence, and hope.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
• Release date: Feb 15, 2024
• ISBN: 9780826365989

Sarah Kotchian

Sarah Kotchian is also the author of Camino, winner of the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award and the Seven Sisters Book Award.

Book preview

I. | Holdfast

Wrack

Kelp floats on the tide,

great bladdered life

rafts for lobsters,

herring, their small fry

food for puffin chicks.

Bay empties twice a day;

kelp’s muscle called the holdfast

anchors tight to stones.

Seagulls poke the periwinkles

crack sea urchin shells.

For five years now

this bay the fastest warming

on the planet

cold water fish move north

warm water fish replace them

their fry too big

for new-hatched puffins’ beaks

Five years ago

the parents could not

save their chicks.

Nothing illegal here

businesses free

to yank

uproot the kelp

drag it clinging from the rocks

along with periwinkles, sea worms, eggs

If puffins die

if herring schools move north

if we lose seagulls, urchins, species we don’t even know we lose,

who will speak the necessary urgency?

To what do we hold fast?

Stopping by Egret

Geese and cranes

fly in by the thousands

wild calls echoing

above tawny reeds

the still pools

the settling down places.

Snowy egret

in the shallow ditch of river water

next to the ponds

pale against the shadows

stands on one leg

yellow foot frozen midair

eyes focused beneath the surface.

I stay my breath

as if that will hold the scene.

Swift flash of pointed bill

then just as quickly

the regal posture is regained

Silky feathers

float back into