Cemetery Music

Birdy Odell (Goodreads Author)

it was amazing 5.00 · Rating details · 5 ratings · 3 reviews

In Cemetery Music, the conflicting feelings we have around death and dying are explored in a collection of vignettes created by pairing found words, that are markedly melancholy, with artwork that is lighthearted, hopeful, and poignant.

The poems themselves invoke an emotional response using very few words. There is sadness in death. It is a universal reaction. Using words ...more

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Paperback, 55 pages

Published December 10th 2019 by Nightingale & Sparrow Press

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Dec 16, 2019 Marie rated it it was amazing

Cemetery Music by Birdy Odell has sad notes dealing as it does with death, loss, and grief, but Odell’s artwork — including whimsical little birds with silly hats and balloons — lifts the music of her chosen words, encouraging this reader at least to sometimes find delight, perhaps even joy, in this chapbook. Odell’s renderings of softly drawn birds and flora are paired with found words pasted to the drawings as like a scrapbook, a meditation on sad but inevitable events, the fact that you Cemetery Music by Birdy Odell has sad notes dealing as it does with death, loss, and grief, but Odell’s artwork — including whimsical little birds with silly hats and balloons — lifts the music of her chosen words, encouraging this reader at least to sometimes find delight, perhaps even joy, in this chapbook. Odell’s renderings of softly drawn birds and flora are paired with found words pasted to the drawings as like a scrapbook, a meditation on sad but inevitable events, the fact that you cannot have Life without Death.

Death stormed into my life when I was rather young, with the loss of a three-year-old cousin, and has continued to wreak havoc ever since, increasing his presence exponentially as I entered my sixties, forcing me to accept him as an inevitable part of my life.

Odell gives voice to my uneasy reconciliation with Death: “she believed in what remained.” Five simple words that can have different meanings depending on its context. In Cemetery Music, for me the meaning of “she believed in what remained,” is soothing, reassuring, a notation that much remains after Death has visited, much remains to believe in, to embrace. I can grieve my loss but also embrace memories that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Death or its aftermath may be “a still moment [which] showed neither peace nor sorrow,” but Odell encourages us to “be happy with familiar objects” such as “small, bright beads” and “wooded hills” and “wallflowers.” The found words — snips of single words, couplings or phrases — are placed on the pages like a breadcrumb trail, navigating the reader “near the graves” where “nothing was left but little stolen hearts.”

Anyone who has spent time in a cemetery, particularly ones where the dead have lain for centuries, will read Odell’s poems as those epitaphs etched into granite, sandstone, or marble, some so worn by time and weather that words seem “rubbed with the balm of love.”

As I approach the prospect of more deaths in my life, more times of mourning and grief, I’ll want to have Birdy Odell’s Cemetery Music by my side. While her poems speak of loss and the pain of being left behind, she reminds us that “life was [and is] still beautiful and breathing.” ...more

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Feb 05, 2020 Sandy Benitez rated it it was amazing

Once again, I was searching for a unique poetry book to read and when I came across this chapbook on Nightingale & Sparrow's literary site, it immediately peaked my interest. I love mixed media, collage, and dark poetry, it's rare to find these types of poetry books though I think they are beginning to sprout up more often now, which is a great thing.

I thought the collages and poems within were intriguing and they instantly present a visceral reaction, to the point where you excitedly await ...more

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Jan 16, 2020 Charlotte Hamrick rated it it was amazing

This small book of poetry and art is huge in heart and soul. Birdy’s illustrations are whimsical and touching, perfectly matching her poetry. Each poem is a gem evoking feelings of nostalgia, mystery, and mindfulness. I know I’ll return to Cemetery Music again and again. I highly recommend this book.

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