‘Gibberbird: Of Birds and Other Strings’ is a poetic conversation between a source poem and ten poems found from within its lines. It’s a refraction of language and image through poetic prisms, an intersection of the familiar and unfamiliar, blurring the edges through the 11 authors’ interpretations.

angela rawlings – a.rawlings – is a Canadian poet from Iceland, currently spending three months in Queensland as the 2012 Arts Queensland Poet in Residence. ‘GIBBERBIRD‘ was written during her first week, a poetic response to the newness of place and an exploration and ordering of the unfamiliar. The ten Queensland poets in this chapbook have, by invitation from the Queensland Poetry Festival, written a response to a.rawling’s GIBBERBIRD, creating a poetic conversation, a dialogue of interpretation rather that literality.

While a.rawlings is new to the flora and fauna of Queensland’s landscapes, each of the poets in conversation with her call Queensland home. The unfamiliar as seen through her eyes is their familiarity rendered anew.

The result is a poetic refraction of experience through language, as these ten poets read the remarkable ‘everyday-ness’ through a foreigner’s eyes, reinterpreting her response in a layering of reaction, reflection, response and recall. This is a conversation of birds and other strings.