Bird Effort by Ronald Batz

Ronald Baatz lives and works in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains of New York where the breathtaking scenery has no doubt influenced his poems in this collection. The poems in Bird Effort published by Kamini Press contain beautiful imagery in just a few short lines, humor in daily life’s moments, and careful acknowledgement of life’s sorrows. The chapbook itself is small, beautiful, with high-quality cardstock and a simple yet beautiful and spare watercolor of a bird. Below I am happy to share a sample of the breathtaking poems found inside:


Bad enough
sleep is so difficult
now dreams of my dead father
have come to
spend the winter

O lord
let me
stay drunk somehow
without all this drinking
now and forever, amen

This poem is spare and heart wrenching to me. I can understand what the poet means when he wants to stay drunk without the drinking, wants his sense dulled against the dreams and the memories. Death and winter are always an excellent pairing and the poet explains his loss in a way that makes it just as fresh a wound for any who read and have experienced loss of their own.



Leave me bread
at least a few slices
leave me your voice
at least a few words
to go with the bread

Snow this morning
when I part the curtains
after getting out of bed
one rib
at a time

This poem makes me wonder if the poet’s true love is leaving either on a great journey or leaving forever and that is why he asks for a few “crumbs” of the person’s voice before they go. The second half reminds me of someone aging, maybe feeling older in the absence of the person mentioned in the first stanza, so lonely the poet can hear each rib crackling as he stretches before getting out of bed. It’s a wonderful poem for drawing your own imagery and story to make it “yours” don’t you think?



Unwritten poems—
so many of them
hanging like bats
inside the darkness
of me

On a gorgeous summer’s day
I walk between the dark shelves—
all the books in the library
smelling like
old girlfriends

First of all, I love poems about poetry even though we’re often discouraged against writing such poems. Second, I love poems about books since I am a voracious reader. A poem that combines the two is just ecstasy and this poet makes both ideas clever and fun as he likens poems to hanging bats inside of himself and books in the library are said to smell like old girlfriends. I know exactly what he’s means when he describes them that way and I applaud him for it.



I have to play
like a child
stay outside
like a dragonfly
drink like a fish

After scrabble in bed
I see a vowel
stuck to her tailbone
as she turns to sleep
facing the wall

This poem is endearing and funny. You can picture a married couple playing scrabble in bed (I love the idea myself) then the husband (our poet) is awake and sees the remnants of their game stuck to wife’s tailbone. I absolutely love it! It is a simple, sweet, funny snapshot of a couple’s life together and I think it is perfect.



There are so many poems I want to share but it is a chapbook, Bird Effort by Ronald Batz so I cannot give it all away. If you enjoyed these as much as I do, I urge you to pick up a copy for yourself and you’ll love the package it arrives in since it comes from Sweden and will be covered in interesting international stamps and then inside will be a delicate and beautiful chapbook with the cover art by Henry Denander, the publisher.
To purchase a copy for yourself for $9.00 or a special edition that includes signed artwork for $18.00, visit Kamini Press’ site:

http://kaminipress.com/


Thanks always for reading, please click in tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…