Birdology: a review

This is my first book review on this site, and today I want to share some perspectives on a gem of a publication by Montreal’s Carolyne Van Der Meer. Her chapbook “Birdology” was published recently by Cactus Press.

This slender book of poetry is about life and loss, and Carolyne shares intimate and authentic moments and emotions about aging parents, love, life and loss. She juxtaposes the ever-present carefree (yet not painless!) birdlife around us with the lives of those we love as their bodies (and perhaps minds) deteriorate.

As someone in my early fifties, I can relate to the sandwich of middle-age. Kids are growing up and leaving home, and parents on the other side whose health will continue to decline. Observing and connecting to nature may help make sense of some of this, or at least provide a respite during difficult times.

Here’s an exert from one of my favourites, Trees:

Lately I have been listening to trees

I can’t help it because that’s where

the birds are and I’ve been listening to

them for longer     It took a while to

actually hear the trees    or maybe

that’s called paying attention

Indeed, it’s called paying attention. And in the depths of difficult times, sometimes pausing with a cup of coffee to watch birdlife, even if sitting in your car in a parking lot, will bring a moment away from the haze of emotion.

Not long after publishing this Chapbook, Carolyne Van Der Meer’s mother passed away, something she posted on social media. This made my re-read of Birdology even more poignant. Grief, loss, and sadness were already within the poems, and not more ever-present after another death. Yet Carolyne’s poetry is not dark and depressing, it is beautiful and real. It shows us that life is both uplifting and deeply, difficult and bird life is similarly harsh yet mixed with delight.

Birdology II beautifully captures this dichotomy, starting with reminders of the difficult and unknown:

Sometimes we don’t know what awaits us. How suddenly, on a

random day of puddle splashing, there is also a feeling of

bereftness that cannot be contained. A highway pile-up of grief.

And it ends with a reminder of bird’s playfulness:

There was nothing weighing down the sparrows in their puddle,

no sadness that I could discern. They flapped their wings,

flicking the water off their little bodies. And dove in again.

Thank you, Carolyne, for writing these poems and sharing them with the world. So many of us will find these meaningful.

You can go here to buy it: https://www.cactuspresspoetry.com/birdology

© Christopher M Buddle 2025