The Smallest Bird in North America: Poems

Poetry. “With the observational eye of Charles Darwin and the soul of John Muir, Robert Grunst…takes us on a journey of the flora and fauna of his life in the Midwest and West”–Mary Swander. “Mixing scientific knowledge with lyrical panache, Grunst offers us a wealth of colorful (and memorable) fact… and he has a live, surprising language for what lies beyond facts, too, finding… that a bucket drowned in Clear Lake can remain `shining and surer than the risen Christ.’ One of his most hauntingly evocative poems ends with the phrase, `infinitesimal treasures of the sea.’ It is a phrase that aptly describes the rich lyrical and meditative sea-harvest of this remarkable first collection”–Eamon Grennan.