Ama Birch reads from Sonnet Boom!

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I met Ama Birch about six months ago and now that I know her I keep running into her everywhere I go including a well-attended poetry reading she gave at the Seward Park Library not too long ago. I asked her there if I could record her, and I am happy to report that I finally have some of her poems on the Vimeo below, particularly well-formed sounds that make me think of a painter with a wide brush who brushes bold strokes of color across the canvas, or here the page, language as easy to see and hear, letters as well as words as smart as they are fun to understand.

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I’ve typed out randomly three sonnets not read in the Vimeo above for a better feel of the breadth and depth of these poems.

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Sunrise

Telephone
Drum
Bone
Come:
Overhead
Doves
Dead
Gloves.
West
Song:
Rest
Wrong
One
Sun
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In Salience

The Wind is a
Howl.
Its engines roar, “Grrruuah!”
Clouds blow a paper towel.
The tree is a
Hand.
Sands fall, “sssssaaannnddda.”
Jade: The color of the land.
The light is a
Square.
Frequency whispers, “wwwhhhaaa.”
Sallow: The meat of a pear.
Amber light off in the distance
Mist allows for persistence.
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Bonfire

Boil, Boil, Toil, and Trouble.
Three witches by a fire
Brimming over subtle.
Tie Her! Tie Her!
Another fag
Burned in the lunar light.
Another bag
Carries a body into the white.
Sage burns.
Witches smile.
And embryo turns.
The moon becomes wild.
Crackle! Cackle! Crack!
Witches were burned is fact.
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