Bird Calendar (Earth List)
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Eastern koel
January companion in the vertical air Brown thornbill March folds away its songs while sap falls Southern boobook May returns and the house is empty Powerful owl July cradled like a pine branch scored by talons Fan-tailed cuckoo September softens the hardest memory Grey butcherbird November warning before the sky darkens |
Sulphur-crested cockatoo
February rises like a burning mantle Grey goshawk April farewell to a dying tree Glossy black-cockatoo June cracks open as continents drift Yellow-faced honeyeater August cascading over ruined limbs Wonga pigeon October clock steadying sorrow Sacred kingfisher December fledgling by a dry creek |
This poem was commissioned originally in 2021 by composer and Associate Professor Bruce Crossman, for a collaboration by colleagues in Western Sydney University’s Music and Poetics programs. A recorded version of "Bird Calendar (Earth List)" features sampled readings from the poem alongside layered improvisations by Dr. Waldo Fabian Garrido and Dr. Nicholas Ng.
© Tony Mott
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Kate Fagan is a poet, editor and songwriter whose third book First Light (Giramondo) was short-listed for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and the Age Book of the Year Award. She is Director of the Writing & Society Research Centre (WSU) where she also leads The Writing Zone, a mentoring program for emerging writers and arts workers from Western Sydney. Her album Diamond Wheel won the National Film & Sound Archive Award for Folk Recording and she supported Joan Baez on her 2013 tour of Australia/NZ.
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