Rush of Wingspan

Eleonore Schönmaier is the internationally trans- lated, award-winning author of Field Guide to the Lost Flower of Crete, Dust Blown Side of the Journey, and Wavelengths of Your Song. She divides her time between Nova Scotia and coastal Europe.

“With a purity that stuns, these poems unfurl a consciousness that is exquisitely alert – to sensory and interior worlds, to the textures of human love and its deprivations. Each poem its own concentrated morsel, each poem leaving you needing the next.” – Julie Sedivy, author of Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love “Eleonore Schönmaier’s Rush of Wingspan is a sanctuary of stillness, offering a space for clarity and reflection. Her prismatic poems navigate silence, perception, and memory with a painterly delicacy, encouraging the reader to forge a deeper connection with oneself and the natural world.” – J. Mae Barizo, author of Tender Machines “The rush of a life fully lived, swift and ephemeral. A span from tenderness to brutality, activity to contemplation, nature to art. Though tethered to the witnessed world, Schönmaier’s visionary attention holds these poems aloft.” – Stephanie Bolster, author of Long Exposure “‘If we want / clarity,’ writes Eleonore Schönmaier, ‘we should try casting / a bronze sculpture’ – but ‘her new book suggests another source of rare clarity: reading poetry like hers. In blending spareness and amplitude, memories and immediacy, these poems are among her most riveting ever.” – Brian Bartlett, author of The Astonishing Room “Rush of Wingspan is a stunning collection that distills and details youth’s harsh realities, love’s adult healing, and the natural world enfolding them. Eleonore Schönmaier shows life in all its depths and beauty where ‘light in its fullness / both fades and brightens,’ illuminated by her poetic brilliance.” – Kevin Irie, author of The Tantramar Re-Vision

• NORTHERN BUSHUnderstatements 3Counting 4Visible 5Pretending 6Overburden 7Fields 8Thawing 9When Southerners Ask About the Animals 10Lamplight 11Surfaces 12Weasels 13Newspaper Girl 14Wallet 15Babysitter 16Party 17Into the Garden 18Traces 19Reaches 20Swimming 21Untouched 22Candy Striper 24Rumours 25Security 27The Library in the Winter 28Flight into Puppetry 30Census Taker 32Ashes 34Taiga 36On the Line 37Tools 38Penelope 39ATLANTIC COASTAL FORESTAncestors 43Keening 44Straying 45Sun-Warmed 47This Painting Not Yet Hung on the Wall 48Lullaby 49Naturally 50Kindness 51Riverbeds 52Joining Us in the Water 54La Main 55Burning 56Floats 58NORTH SEA CITY FORESTBarn Owls 61Black Earth 63Midnight 65Rhododendron Bush 67Sunlight 68The Long Marriage 69Trains Still Arrive 70Reunion of Two Lovers 71Lanterns 72Much Depends Upon 73Late 74WINGSWhen Wings Open Doors 77Windows 79Chance 80Wings of Voorlinden 82When the Salons Are Shuttered 84Over the Edge 85The Starving 86Dawning of DuskMorning 87Afternoon 88Night 89 GEOMETRIES OF LIGHTZoo 93Star Silt 95Leiden 97Blue Light 99Windowpanes 101Glint 103Geometries of Light 104The Lining 106Yield 108Grieving 109Bowl 110Clarity 111NIGHT ALIGNMENTSTending 115Night Alignments 116Bloom 117These Are the Objects 118Secret Code 119Blackbirds and Greenfinches 121Inventory 123History 124Enter 125Hesitations 126Blur 128At Play 129Model Collapse 130What Is Left Is 131Shape 132Sculpture 133ENTANGLEMENTSBodies of Work 137Art Options 139The Unwritten Book 140Starstruck 141Animals 144SAILORWhen a Friend Lends a Poet Movies 146When Love Is an Incinerator 147Great Circle Route 149All Lit Up 151While Kissing Onboard 152Shore LeaveRain 153The Bliss of Storm Eccentricities 154Fleeting 155Open Gates 156Acknowledgments 159Notes 163