In bursts of energy, on spindly legs, piping plovers scurry along the beaches of Massachusetts. Tiny, fluffy things, they have migrated to New England from southern states to mate and raise chicks. But they live perilous lives. Busy beaches and strong weather pose dangers to nests, not to mention threats of unleashed pets and wildlife lured by beach trash. Nonetheless, piping plovers represent the success of conservation policies and intervention. The poems on the following pages express gratitude for these efforts, and appreciation for the plovers that populate beaches along the Massachusetts coast and elsewhere.
Poems for Plovers features the work of eight poets from around the world. It is one of four chapbooks dedicated to New England animals in need. This set of chapbooks invites the reader to look closer at their environment. To hold their breath and listen to the summer sounds of cicada song. To overturn logs and rocks in search of salamanders in the leaf-litter. To peer from a safe distance at the blur of legs that carry a plover along the shoreline. And to strain eyes against the dusk and spot the silhouette of a flapping bat. These poems invite others to write of their own encounters, to see our relationship with animals not as a meeting of two separate worlds, but of one world of symbiotic experiences.
Contents:
“Crane Beach” by Blake Campbell
“West Coast Plover Power” by Elizabeth Kuelbs
“Bird Song” by Heather Martin
“Broken Wing Display” by Agnes Martin
“Piping Plover” by Susan Edwards Richmond
“Threatened” by Paulette Turco
“Finder’s Keepers” by Diana Adams
“Plum Island” by Zachary Bos
