The Comfort of "The Comfort Of Crows"

THE COMFORT of CROWS by Margaret Renkl

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tHE cOMFORT oF cROWS

A Backyard Year - by Margaret Renkl 

I can think of no better place to sit down to write my impressions of Margaret Renkl’s book The Comfort Of Crows on this unseasonably warm March afternoon than my backyard patio.  A self-described backyard naturalist, Margaret Renkl is fluent in the art of noticing – week to week, season to season, seedhead to bloom and back again.  

From the sleeping brown buds on the branches of a tree in winter, to the berries that feed the feathered cold weather residents taking shelter among the native shrubs in her wild garden, Renkl takes it all in. The good, the sad, and the hopeful.

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Sleeping buds awaiting spring to unfold.

All winter long the brown bud will sleep. While the cold crow calls into the gray sky, while the wet leaves blacken and begin their return to the earth, the brown bud is waiting for its true self to unfold: a beginning that in sleep has already begun.
​                                                      ~ Mary Renkl

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In this diary of a backyard year, the essay for week 2 explores the bird watcher's tradition of spotting the first bird of the new year, which sets the tone for the next twelve months. Following weeks and essays encompass wildlife observations, family memories, and a myriad of personal encounters with the natural world from Renkl’s perspective.

To view the natural world through Margaret Renkl’s lens is to witness the unfolding of new, green leaves in spring, the gathering of a family of crows on the tip-tops of trees, and the maiden voyage of a bluebird nestling in flight. It is to worry at the devastation to migrating songbirds and native insects from habitat loss, and the poisons so casually spread on lawnscapes across the country. ​​

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It is, also, to feel joy upon noticing the rising of wildflower seedlings in the garden and prairie. To tune in to the song of spring peepers when walking a woodland with an ephemeral pond.

​To hear a song sparrow singing its heart out from the branches of a backyard pine tree on a cold winter day. To enjoy the end of a summer evening serenaded by the sound of crickets singing loud and clear, as dusk turns dark.

A song sparrow perched in winter.

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Renkl presents her observations in prose that is both poetic and sincere. As a nature lover and wildlife enthusiast myself, reading The Comfort Of Crows left me, at times, overcome with emotion. 

It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the changes happening to our planet. To the loss, in the millions, of songbirds, and insects, and other creatures of the animal world. To wonder, in fear, what will happen to us as well, as the climate warms, and the weather becomes even more unpredictable. Renkl does not shy away from these realities.  When feeling on the edge of despair she writes:

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Then I watch the green sweat bees crawling across the dandelions and the bluebird bringing pine straw to the nest box. I hear the honeybees working the spring beauties and the blue jay crooning a whisper song to his mate and the first cricket tuning up on the first warm evening. I wake in the morning to find that our resident rabbit has nibbled all the petals off the tickseed, and I am thrilled. The flowers are for her. All the flowers are for her.
​                                                                                                           ~ Mary Renkl

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While acknowledging the grief and the tragedies of the natural world, Renkl also sees the beauty that exists right alongside it. Sometimes in spite of it. She demonstrates that an understanding of the situation does not negate the beauty that exists. These are complex times, and complex perspectives and emotions fit the bill. She also illustrates that each of us can make a difference, in simple ways, in our own backyards and green spaces, no matter how big or small they are.

​As the book is written, it is welcome to be read. No need to plow through. Enjoy each week, each poetic devotional, each beautiful illustration by Margaret’s talented, artist brother, Billy Renkl, one week at a time. Savor it. Read a chapter, then observe your own surrounding natural world with a new view.
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I, myself, read it once and let it sit with me a while.  Then I went back, and over a few weeks, read it over again.  Something tells me I’ll be pulling this book out to read again and again. Season to season, even.

Published: October 24, 2023
​Publisher: Spiegel & Grau​

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