Crowd Source: A Poem

Author: Cecily Nicholson

Publisher: Spiral Editions (2024)

Crowd Source is a long poem born from Nicholson’s observation, fascination, and inquiry into the twice-daily crow migration that happens in metro Vancouver at dusk and at dawn, 365 days a year. “Crow clans from all sections of the coast journey to their evening roost at Still Creek in so-called Burnaby;” from here, Nicholson unfolds and illuminates the organic beauty of collective action, the unified breath of the crowd, and the similar beauties of migration and of public movement in human and more-than-human worlds. “we keep us safe and attend to trial // to soar to persist in how to disperse spells / on a wing’s breath // studying for a hex-proof life // sprinting down a crowded avenue.”