From the Desk of the Poet:

"Omens of Birds" is one of those poems that came from a factual experience--the tree, the vultures--but I used that moment to explore the darker side of my bipolar disorder. Occasionally afflicted by deep depression, I am often given to moments of despair that bring me dangerously close to some of my worst ponderings of inevitability; thus, the line that ends, "the darkness that starts within."

The part of the poem that caused me the most consternation, though, was the final imagery. It wasn't until I completely embraced the most simple understanding of my disorder (the idea of two sides) that I was able to re-examine what was most representative in the scene. Something as simple as a falling leaf can help enlighten the dichotomies that abound.

David B. Prather is the author of We Were Birds (Main Street Rag, 2019), Shouting at an Empty House (Sheila-Na-Gig, 2023), and Bending Light with Bare Hands (Fernwood Press, 2025). A former president of West Virginia Writers, he has taught at WVU Parkersburg and Marietta College, edited for Confluence and Tantra Press, and now reads for Suburbia. His work appears in Colorado Review, Seneca Review, Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore, and more, with Pushcart and Best of the Net nominations. He holds an MFA from Warren Wilson, studied at the National Shakespeare Conservatory, and lives in Parkersburg, WV. 

More at: www.davidbprather.com