ABOUT THIS BOOK

Above the Birch Line reflects a lifetime of observation and experience, and offers glimpses of the loves, aches, and comforts that have accompanied author Pia Taavila-Borsheim along the way. Written primarily in free verse, the poems are imagistic in nature, with an ongoing metaphor of visual representations of nature, especially water. Starting with her childhood and continuing through late adulthood, Taavila-Borsheim ruminates on her parents, travels, marriage, motherhood, and finally, aging and death.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Pia Taavila-Borsheim is a retired professor of literature and creative writing at Gallaudet University. Her previous works include Moon on the Meadow: Collected Poems, Two Winters, and Love Poems. She lives in Presque Isle, Michigan.

REVIEWS

“This book is a life-long journey that begins, beautifully, with the request for a private existence (‘Sometimes I want a life unseen, above the bookstore’); it asks for the life of attentiveness, a life of detail (‘A small life, such as the one in which stew / bubbles on the stove and there is a wooden table / set with two bowls, two spoons, two mugs for milk / and thick napkins, white and folded. Bread bakes / while steam from the kettle clouds my glasses.’). It is these details that give the poems their power, their imagistic depth and sweep. The poet does a beautiful job giving us the intimacy of perspective, the clarity of view, especially in the poems that look back, that deal with memory in poems that are narrative, but not prosy, lyrical but not needlessly inaccessible. There is a clear emotion running through these pages and the reader can relate to the voice of these poems. There is also a beautiful economy of language in this book. The tension between what is said and unsaid is beautifully balanced.”

— Ilya Kaminsky, author of Deaf Republic

“Pia Taavila-Borsheim’s Above the Birch Line invokes a rich, resonant past through the clear-eyed and compassionate lens of present wisdom. From the silences of Deaf parents whose sign language speaks volumes, to the tranquil summer days of Michigan rivers, outboard motors, and hours lost to ‘the lapping waves crowding one upon the other,’ Taavila-Borsheim writes with a sure touch and an inclusive vision. She is the mother who bids a literal ‘fare well’ to the adult children who have left home for the wider world, and she is the poet who wryly recalls former loves while vividly chronicling travels to Colorado, Key West, Italy, and Mangalore ‘where, in moonlight, / musicians finger tablas, harmoniums, / singing and moaning to ancient ghazals.’ Above the Birch Line offers poems that are literal ‘passages’—both journey and revelation—and those who join this singular voyage will find themselves fortunate, indeed.”

— Ned Balbo, author of The Cylburn Touch-Me-Nots

“The poems in Above the Birch Line are a harvest of arresting detail, entrancing musicality, and consistently evocative narrative. You'll find your eyes, ears, and heart revisiting (and marveling at) each line, image, and stanza the way one pores over, say, a score by Claude Debussy. Pia Taavila-Borsheim's work honors her path, but she also takes us along on these vivid recollections. Lucky, lucky us.”

— Reuben Jackson, author of Scattered Clouds

“Pia Taavila-Borsheim’s Above the Birch Line is part poetic autobiography, part prayer book: a celebration of life in all its complicated beauty and a call for communion with the natural world. But it’s also a guidebook—in sections moving from Notes from Childhood to Notes toward Death, with important stops in between—to a lifelong journey of discovery. These poems offer us a careful contemplation of ‘matters of heart and hand’ from a sharp-eyed poet ready to capture each moment of wonder, fleeting as ‘the flash of a cardinal’s red wing / in a snowy forest.’”

— Matthew Thorburn, author of The Grace of Distance

“Haunting, aromatic, and atmospheric, Pia Taavila-Borsheim’s poems reveal a coming to terms with the order and disorder of life and nature. At once panoramic and microscopic, they are moving and cinematic, shifting focus between details faraway and up close.”

— Willy Conley, author of Listening through the Bone

“With imagistic precision and a rare generosity of spirit, Above the Birch Line confronts the sweep of a life—its joys and hungers and sorrows—while relishing the tiny details that somehow make all the difference: ‘Pecans on waffles. / Purple lantana. Frothy ferns. / Dew glistens on coquina walls.’ I was especially moved by this book’s daring meditations on old age: the contradictory salve and stab of memory during ‘this time of too much time’ and yet the unexpected sweetness near the end.”

— Anders Carlson-Wee, author of The Low Passions

“These poems are infected by—full of—water in all its guises. And this—the presence in nearly every poem of rain, snow, bays, creeks, clouds, huge lakes, rills on glass—is also Above the Birch Line’s extraordinary strength. There is a clarity, a fluidity to these poems, a grace of registers from the very small to large, from childhood past old age, from early desire to late. And the poems hold within themselves a quiet urgency—to say a life, but a life in its various contexts and containers, a life deeply connected with the world. It is also a book of real, quiet, and, in its own way, ferocious maturity.”

— Leslie Harrison, author of The Book of Endings

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

Notes from Childhood
Norwegian Krone, 1891                                                                             3
Down the Road                                                                                          4
November, 1963 5
Ortiz’ Dry Cleaners                                                                                    6
On the Au Sable River                                                                              7
Flag Pole 8

Notes for My Former Loves
Two Birds                                                                                                  11
Climbing the Bluff 12
Wake                                                                                                         13
Sherry Glasses                                                                                         14
Marriage 15
After He Leaves                                                                                        16
The Internet Dating Game 17
Frame                                                                                                       18

Notes from My Travels
Longitude                                                                                                 21
Lost                                                                                                           22
At the Ferry                                                                                              23
Colorado Farewell 24
Thirst                                                                                                         25
Massage Therapy                                                                                     26
Piazza                                                                                                       27
Mangalore                                                                                                28
I See Horses                                                                                             29
Underground                                                                                           30

Notes from Motherhood
A Mother’s Lament 33
Root                                                                                                   34
Soldier Son                                                                                        35
Hovering                                                                                            36
Fare Well to Six Children    37

Notes to David
Thunder Bay                                                                                      41
Chance                                                                                              42
Wisp                                                                                                   43
Shopping                                                                                           44
Proposal                                                                                            45
Roofline                                                                                             46
Psalm                                                                                                 47
Desire                                                                                                48
Marriage to a Widower 49
Wednesday Mornings 50
For David    51
Delayed Gratification    52
Solstice: Still Life with Husband 53

Notes Toward Aging
While Weeding 57
From Car to Schwinn and Back Again    58
Main Street 59
Diskobolos                                                                                                 60
First Drafts                                                                                                 61
For Aging Couples 62
March Morning 63
Presque Isle Landscape                                                                            64

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