Birds Flew In by Roderick Deacey, published by Sligo Creek Publishing, has a gorgeous cover that speaks to the poems within this slim chapbook. Birds fly into and through these poems in an overarching metaphor for the sometimes transitory nature of life. Deacey is a local poet who can be found in Frederick, Md., at Sky Stage with the DC Beats, but I have had the pleasure of hearing him read poems through the Hyattstown Mill Arts Project’s virtual poetry readings. His poems are vignettes that when coupled with his voice transport the listener to another era.
In “Herons Await,” Deacey compares a heron in the reeds with poems. It’s a beautiful and apt image for those of us who wait for the muse to visit. I love that he captures the heron on his phone, such a modern notion compared with my typical moment of writing things on scraps of paper.
Moving through the collection, like the birds flitting in and out of the speaker’s vision, so too are the neighbors, friends, and other people in his life.
from “Ripples Receding & A Small Green God” (pg. 4)
the people here have all moved on
sliding away across the years …
I can’t remember them
I can’t miss them
but I sense absence
a fleeting feeling of indefinable loss
But not all of these poems are about loss. In fact, they remind us to cherish even the smallest moments — sitting with a granddaughter and her sketch pad, absorbing the nature around us, and so much more. In “Hopeful,” a granddaughter re-imagines the flowers around her as a great mansion, in which her grandfather imagines a home for birds.
In “Don’t Try to Understand,” Deacey treats us to a meditative call of being still: “Don’t try to understand/but stand in the night & let the stars/soak in through your skin/let the owl’s screech bring you silence/to hear the silver moonlight sing//” (pg. 22) But don’t be fooled by this beat poem – there is activism afoot.
Deacey’s roots are in beat poetry, and when you hear him with the DC Beats you will see it and hear it. It’s as beautiful as it is toe-tapping and entertaining, as Deacey infuses some of his poems with humor. Birds Flew In by Roderick Deacey is just a taste of this poet’s work. If you cannot see him read in person (though you can if you want to see him virtually at HMAP), this is the best way to hear him.
RATING: Quatrain
About the Poet:
Roderick Deacey is a performing poet based in Frederick, Md. He is a member of the Frederick chapter. In normal, non-viral times, he regularly performs with his drummer and bass-player, presenting “neo-beat” poems inspired by the Beat Poets’ poetry and jazz forays of the nineteen-fifties. Deacey was awarded the 2019 Frederick Arts Council Carl R. Butler Award for Literature.
