Birds in Poetry and Prose in Alaska and Beyond

On the backside of the earth, aboard an expedition ship crossing the rocky waters of the Drake Passage between Argentina and Antarctica, ornithologist Rodrigo Tapia could be giving a lecture on seabirds that begins with the poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” It’s the haunting story of a sailor who kills an albatross and is pressured to endure supernatural punishment at sea, finally studying a tough lesson about humanity’s accountability to the world.

“It’s an excellent allegory of the connection between man and the atmosphere,” Tapia says, pointing to the second when the albatross is senselessly executed—“this blessing of nature ends”—and every thing adjustments. “That’s the spirit of that poem, actually,” Tapia says. “The connection between man and nature and the way … in the long run, the man realizes his mistake.”

For Tapia, poetry helps bridge emotional understanding and scientific information throughout his lectures. “That is the great thing about literature,” he says. “That is why I like to make use of it as a gap, as a result of it instantly underlines the connection between us and [birds].” (Aspect be aware: Tapia first found the poem at school after listening to the Iron Maiden music with the identical title.)

On the opposite facet of the globe, in Alaska, the place birds are additionally plentiful and susceptible to speedy environmental change, that layered understanding is very vital, and Alaska writers are right here to drive that time dwelling. Alaska’s prose and poetry are highly effective instruments for deepening understanding of birds—not solely as ecological indicators but additionally as household, lecturers, and storytellers themselves. Throughout types and traditions, writing about birds in Alaska is a cherished pastime—and really a lot a present factor.

Writing About Birds as Kin

Numerous Alaskan poets and authors give attention to birds as topics. However there’s extra to this relationship. For Vera Starbard, Alaska’s State Author Laureate (who’s additionally a journalist, playwright, and TV author who’s been nominated for her work on “Molly of Denali”), birds are inseparable from personhood. In her work, formed by Tlingit storytelling traditions, birds usually are not simply metaphors; they’re kin.

“They’re our family, they’re our cousins, they’re our creators in some instances, and that’s most likely why we like writing about them a lot,” Starbard says. “They’re such an enormous a part of our identification, in a manner that I do not assume is mirrored in lots of different locations. I believe birds are handled as animals who haven’t any relation to us, and we simply have such a deep reference to them that they present up in every thing we do.” (One other facet be aware: Starbard is saying this whereas two ornamental birds are actually proper behind her head in her dwelling on Douglas Island in Juneau.)

This attitude frames how birds seem in Starbard’s writing, seeing as ravens, eagles, and different species carry lineage. 

“Raven is my moiety as a Tlingit lady, and all Tlingit comply with their mom’s clan to be both Raven or Eagle. It’s a part of my identification as Leeneidi to be Raven, in addition to T’akdeintaan yadi—the daughter of the Seagull (or Kittiwake) clan, which means my father’s clan,” she says. “I couldn’t separate these identities from myself even when I needed to, so birds have all the time been part of my upbringing, in addition to a cultural cornerstone of the Tlingit folks.”

Calling Out Extra Alaska Voices

Starbard is a part of a broader group of Alaska Native writers whose work deeply engages with the land and birds. She’s fast to say poets like X̱’unei Lance Twitchell, Annie Wenstrup, and Joan Naviyuk Kane. 

“All three poets write their birds as ‘characters,’” Starbard says, however Twitchell—a Tlingit/Haida/Yup’ik/Sami scholar and author—publishes works highlighting the legends and personhood behind these birds. “Raven/Trickster is as human as any human, generally extra so,” Starbard says. “I’ve realized quite a bit about our tradition, together with birds, from him.” The piece “The Many Cycles of Raven” from “G̱agaan X̱ʼusyee / Under the Foot of the Solar” comes really helpful.

Wenstrup’s writing explores private historical past and nature, referencing birds in items about legend and as a robust relation to her identification, Starbard explains. Wenstrup is a Dena’ina poet whose debut assortment, “The Museum of Unnatural Histories,” was launched in 2025. A really helpful piece is “Ggugguyni within the Museum Parking Lot” about Ggugguyni (the Dena’ina Raven) and The Museum Curator (the narrator) gathering discarded French fries … and secrets and techniques.

Kane’s poetry is deeply rooted in Arctic landscapes and Inupiaq heritage, as she has household ties to Ugiuvak and Qawiaraq. Her work incessantly displays on birds, usually as symbols, generally accompanied by legend. Starbard suggests her assortment, The Cormorant Hunter’s Spouse, for followers of Alaska poetry with heavy fowl nods (for apparent causes).

Throughout these writers, birds usually are not simply surroundings; they’re personalities and are sometimes central to how a narrative unfolds. Seems like all of us have some studying to do!

Chicken (and Nature) Commentary Turned Poetry

Outdoors of Fairbanks, Frank Keim approaches writing about birds by remark that he shapes into narratives. A longtime adventurer, anthropologist, educator (as a secondary faculty instructor in 4 Alaska Native villages within the decrease Yukon Delta), and poet (he’s the writer of “Voices on the Wind,” a whole poetry guide about Alaska birds), Keim’s writing blends science with experiences and poetic kind. Over a number of a long time, Keim says he organized about 40 long-distance climbing and canoeing journeys within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Gates of Arctic Nationwide Park, and wrote concerning the wildlife—together with birds—he encountered in these landscapes.

“Birds, since they sang and flew and mated and nested amongst all the wildflowers and grizzly bears and caribou of these wild areas and have been a part of every thing we did, each minute of each valuable day of our presence up there, turned probably the most memorable a part of tenting and trekking in all places there,” he says.

Keim sees poetry as a significant connection between science and the inspiration to guard. Whereas knowledge and coverage are important, he argues that storytelling creates the emotional connection crucial for stewardship. The “emotional high quality of story poems” permits readers to have interaction extra deeply with points like habitat loss and shifting fowl populations, making complicated environmental realities extra accessible and private. 

“For many who could learn my poems, my hope is that they’ll not less than have a deeper emotional reference to what I’ve written about,” he says. “In that manner, maybe they are going to be motivated to study extra about nature and the various methods they may actively attempt to defend what’s left, together with the wild animals and wild locations of each Alaska and the Earth typically. That is what I’d name true wilderness stewardship.”

However Keim has much more actionable recommendation: “Camp, trek, canoe, cross-country ski, and raft in wild nation and volunteer to take part in nature analysis research and pupil packages that emphasize the intimate relationships that folks have, and will have, with wild nature,” he says.

One last item. Keim’s work, together with “Voices on the Wind,” is pushed by a perception that birds are expressive beings with their very own types of communication. He says ornithologists, ethologists, and naturalists—from classical Greek Theophrastus to modern-day Frans de Waal—have emphasised that birds and different non-human animals have their very own distinctive sentience, intelligence, and consciousness, together with 11,000 alternative ways of expressing themselves by behaviors like their calls and songs. 

“Chicken species evolution is rather more historic than our personal, courting from way back to the Jurassic and Cretaceous durations in Earth’s paleo historical past,” he says. “So why ought to we not anticipate them to be extra totally developed in their very own conduct domains than we people are?” 

With that in thoughts, maybe it’s not too loopy to assume that birds are creating poetry about us, too.

Past the Alaska Postcard

We’re going again to Starbard, who says that the Indigenous folks of Alaska have been capturing its magnificence, but additionally the accountability of dwelling right here, for millennia now. On this manner, poetry and prose turn out to be instruments not only for appreciation, however for accountability.

“The cultural tales and the artwork capturing the tales, closely that includes birds by the best way, train how we reside with this magnificence, and its usually horrifying changeability, in a manner that emphasizes our lived place and duties amongst all of the creatures of our land, not any perceived energy over them, and never simply as picturesque postcards to take a look at.”

For a lot of exterior Alaska, birds are a part of the state’s visible attract: You bought eagles hovering over mountains, puffins perched on cliffs, cranes crossing open skies. However Alaska writers persistently push past that floor.

“I don’t assume we have to promote Alaska as a fantastic place to go to; folks know that already,” Starbard says. As a substitute, her work—and the work of many Alaska writers talked about on this story and past—focuses on deepening understanding, creating relationships, and being good stewards, which might usually be complicated.

Starbard says she has an advanced relationship with the phrase “conservation,” as a result of it too usually means “faraway from the land.” “I believe that is the alternative of what we’d like to have the ability to save our land and save our environments,” she says. “We have to join with them. We have to see the significance. We have to maintain it in our arms to have the ability to worth it. And if we’re faraway from it, we’re solely ever going to see it as this Mona Lisa behind the glass.”

Her new guide addresses this idea. “Park Survival: Lost In Alaska” follows Emmett, a 12-year-old Tlingit boy who has by no means been to Alaska, however is about to spend the summer season in Sít’ Eeti Geiyí, or Glacier Bay Nationwide Park—the homeland of his mom’s folks. Spoiler alert, however Emmett has a nasty interplay with an ornithologist, who could not have probably the most respect for folks “in nature.” Nevertheless, Emmett learns to take a look at this particular person differently over their mutual respect for the birds and creatures of Alaska.

This middle-grade novel is one other instance of how Alaskan authors can underscore the miracle of Alaska’s birds and landscapes whereas inspiring a need to guard them.

“Writing, whether or not it is poetry or a TV present, and exhibiting the wonder and ugliness and extraordinary miracle of what we name the pure world—however we’re a part of it; it is simply the world— that is how we result in empathy for our causes.”