This is Bird Note. For National Poetry Month, we're featuring contemporary writers exploring their relationships with birds.

And there is certainly no shortage of poetry featuring birds. But that never scared poet Edelimone away from writing

about them. Quite the opposite. I don't think that there can be enough bird poems. When I was finding myself kind of like, oh no, am I writing too many poems about birds?

I just kept thinking, no, maybe that means I need to lean into it a little bit more.

Maybe there needs to be another poem about a bird.

The rebellious sister inside of me was like,

nope, that means you're just going to bring it on.

You're going to get another feeder,

you're going to get the suet,

and we're going to see what happens.

Birds all the way.

Aida's loved birds since she was a kid, and through her life they've brought a great sense of comfort.

When she moved to Kentucky for her husband's work, she struggled to adjust to her new home.

One of the ways that I get to know any place and get connected and to feel grounded and you know feel like

I'm not just swimming out into the universe not knowing where I am is to name birds and

plants and trees and I was sort of doing that work and just sort of, you know, just naming, what kind of trees that, what, you know, that's this and this.

And in her research on the local plants and animals, Ada looked up the state bird of Kentucky.

It's the Northern Cardinal. And the idea of a state bird resonated with her and inspired this poem.

State Bird. Confession. I did not want to live here.

Not among the golden rod, wild onions, or the drop seed.

Not waste high in the barrel-aged brown cornwater.

Not with the million-dollar racehorses,

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