Birch Wiley

“O bird of moonlight. O bird of wish. O sound rising Like an echo from the water. Grief sound. Sound of the horn. The same ghostly sound the deer makes when it runs Through the woods at night, white lightning through the trees, Through the coldest moments, when it feels as if the earth Will never again grow warm, lover running toward lover, The branches tearing back, the mouth and eyes wide, The heart flying into the arms of the one that will kill her.” from “All Wild Animals Were Once Called Deer” by Brigit Pegeen Kelly

I went to London and mostly took pictures of birds 🪿

give yourself over to absolute pleasure 🫦💘

“Remember how you didn’t fall yesterday / even though you thought you would? / Life can be like that all the time if you / let it.” - Gabrielle Calvocoressi, “Karma Affirmation Cistern Don’t Be Afraid Keep Going Toward the Horror”

Reminiscing on my summer travels in Pittsburgh 👀

Transgender kids become happy, healthy transgender adults, btw ⚧️

Just a few moments from Birch Wiley’s book launch at @brooklynpoets . Thank you thank you to everyone who came out to support Birch and new words {press} and be in community. And to @myamatteoalexice for leading the fascinating discussion with Birch! Also a big thank you to @hex.haruspex for reading tarot! #newwordspress #transpoetry #nonbinarypoetry

Incredible things are happening at Brooklyn Poets on Monday August 4th. new words {press} celebrates the launch of Birch Wiley’s masterful collection, Mythweaver. At POFEST when people asked them what it was about, they said queer sex. So I’m going with that, but I’ll add it’s through a truly unique lens of Greco-Roman mythology. We’re also gonna have an experienced tarot reader joining us, Hex. Readings are only $25, which is basically free. nw{p} will be giving a way a reading to two lucky people. Birch will read followed by a discussion and Q&A and then book sales and signing and chatting and laughing and all that community goodness. Don’t miss this. Free to attend but you need to RSVP since the space has a capacity of 40. RSVP link in bio.

Birch Wiley’s debut collection, Mythweaver is officially here. Those who attended the New York City Poetry Festival this past weekend were fortunate enough to purchase an advanced copy (we sold out), and the feedback has been exactly what I thought– this book is 🔥. Greco-roman mythology like you’ve never experienced it. Spoiler. It’s queer af! Get your copy now. Support a brilliant trans poet who will, no doubt, have an impact on the landscape of poetry. “Wiley’s erotic lyricism wields the metaphor of myth to ground queer and trans lives among gods and folklore, offering readers a satisfying journey through a wide scope of Greco-Roman allusions. Birch trusts his readers, pushing them to settle into places of honest discomfort and transgression despite ancient source material. The poems range from deeply funny, like with a complicated “God bless [...] picket fence queers joining PTAs” to deeply serious, like when a vignette of lovers after state brutality ends with “Intimate machinery / of bodies trying / to keep themselves alive.” All in all, Wiley has gifted us a thematically taut, well-researched debut with radiant language on full display.” — Mya / Matteo Alexice Cover Art by Aggie Johnson #newwordspress #birchwiley #mythweaver #transpoetry

Lets hangout! I’ll be reading with @newwordspress @brooklyn_baggett @tothelimitsofyourlonging at PoFest on Governor’s Island on Sunday7/13 at 11am-11:30am! Free to attend! You can find the evite link @poetrysocietyny

When I heard the learn’d astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars. - Walt Whitman happy pride 🌈 had such a good time I took almost no pictures ☺️

It is here! What better way to round out Pride month than the preorder of Birch Wiley’s masterful debut collection Mythweaver. Support trans artists! Get your copy! Link in bio. These poems are an act of mythweaving, meant to blend stories ancient and new. How do we make sense of the way violence, transformation, and passion impact queer selves and lives? Reconsidering the stories of Greco-Roman mythological figures, these poems don’t just retell these stories in a contemporary queer context, but consider how, reimagined and renewed over millennia, they resonate with our lives now. “Wiley’s erotic lyricism wields the metaphor of myth to ground queer and trans lives among gods and folklore, offering readers a satisfying journey through a wide scope of Greco-Roman allusions. Birch trusts his readers, pushing them to settle into places of honest discomfort and transgression…” - Mya / Matteo Alexice