Hope is the thing with feathers

As my friend Chris Cokinos so aptly pointed out, quoting the Belle of Amherst, “Hope is the thing with feathers — That perches in the soul — And sings the tune without the words — And never stops — at all.”

Never stops at all. That’s our hope. For if a bird as plentiful as the passenger pigeon and one as leery and lost as an ivory-bill can both go extinct, then there is no hope.

Although I have known Nancy Tanner for over 12 years (we are both members of the local bird club) and knew of her connection to the ivory-billed woodpecker, it was really Chris Cokinos’ book that first set my mental gears in motion.

His Hope Is the Thing with Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds, first published in the year 2000, is a look at several lost avian species: Carolina parakeet, heath hen, great auk, passenger pigeon, Labrador duck and the ivory-billed woodpecker that are extinct or nearly so. (The jury is still out on the ivorybill and may be sequestered for many years to come. Read Scott Weidensaul’s The Ghost with Trembling Wings.)

If have not read “Hope” then please stop reading this and run out and buy a copy. Don’t check it out of the library; authors struggle to make ends meet.

I was lucky to meet Chris a few years ago when he came to Ijams Nature Center to speak.

Many thanks Chris, for your words of support. My book about Jim Tanner is finally finished.

- Photo of Christopher Cokinos and Nancy Tanner taken January 15, 2007 at Ijams Nature Center in Knoxville.