CORMORANT
Cormorant is a work of contrition. The poems are political and personal. A response to the federal government’s plan to kill thousands of cormorants in the name of salmon recovery and a tribute to the person who died from heartbreak because of it.
To support wildlife, we are donating the profits of this book to The Wildlife Center of the North Coast.
Poetry
ISBN: 978-1956692679
Publication Date: September 19, 2023
Cormorant is a work of contrition. The poems are political and personal. A response to the federal government’s plan to kill thousands of cormorants in the name of salmon recovery and a tribute to the person who died from heartbreak because of it.
To support wildlife, we are donating the profits of this book to The Wildlife Center of the North Coast.
Poetry
ISBN: 978-1956692679
Publication Date: September 19, 2023
Cormorant is a work of contrition. The poems are political and personal. A response to the federal government’s plan to kill thousands of cormorants in the name of salmon recovery and a tribute to the person who died from heartbreak because of it.
To support wildlife, we are donating the profits of this book to The Wildlife Center of the North Coast.
Poetry
ISBN: 978-1956692679
Publication Date: September 19, 2023
Praise for CORMORANT
This collection sings. The poems transcend grief by reclaiming personal narratives. The poet tells a true-life story of how recovering salmon on the Columbia River has become political theatre. It's a short, accessible work that avoids the obscurity that often makes poetry challenging to read.
—Sue Ellen
Vivid, grief-shocked, angry, shining with wet, watery, winged humanity as we all know it, as we feel it when we put our hands on our hearts; particles of hope traveling against vast currents of darkness. This poetry collection was spare and potent, a voice for the cormorants killed off by the tens of thousands on nearby East Sand Island by the Army Corps of Engineers after it was determined they needed to go to save the Salmon (“...kill the birds, but whatever you do, don’t remove the dams…!”). Reading this collection, I was able to sit with someone who was there through all of it, hear their and the birds’ story, reflect on the pools of feeling we have within that know better, that know deeper, and to give some love to this earth which our civilization as a whole has forgotten how to love. It is a small, sparkling treasure full of the spirits of the birds we’ve mistreated who’re still guiding us with their beauty anyway. Thanks for writing it, Elisa. Thanks for poet-ing it out into the world.
—Cliff Taylor
This is no flighty, ethereal poetry; these words are embodied—corporal, visceral—and resonant. Grounded enough to be accessible to non-poetry readers, yet at the same time beautifully, skillfully crafted. A true artist's work.
—Heather Durham
About ELISA CARLSEN
Elisa Carlsen (she/they) grew up in Humboldt County, Nevada. They are an outsider poet and artist whose work has appeared in SixFold, VoiceCatcher, Anti-Heroin Chic, Nevada Arts Council, and Oranges Journal. Elisa won the Lower Columbia Regional Poetry Contest and was a finalist for the Editor’s Prize at Harbor Review. Elisa is a poetry editor for New American Press. Cormorant (Unsolicited Press, 2023) is her first published poetry collection.
