Changelings & 2024 Omen Birds by Clube, Claire NEUF

"CHANGELINGS & OMEN BIRDS," is the complete manuscript of the poetry Claire Clube left for final proof reading and publication. I wish this wise woman had been able to read Natures heirogliphs well enough to not to fly the return trip that would prove to be the last for her and her daughter, Bess.

We are fortunate to have this volume, which in earlier drafts had won golden opinions from master poets Frank Bidart, Henri Cole, Amy Gerstler and Jean Valentine. The esteemed vocalist and musician, Anne Heaton, had collaborated with Claire, using the "Dora" poems of this book for the lyrics to her 2014 CD, "DORA." It was another artistic project Claire would not see come to fruition, but there was joy in the making of it and it is uncanny the way the words and music mirrored the journeys of self discovery for both women.

Claire earned her Masters Degree in Poetry from the Bennington MFA Program, Bennington, VT in 2008. Poetry was her first love, though she was a Master of Fine Arts, self validated, in photography, dress making, metal sculpture and books as objet dart, so her artistic life was as well lived as was her personal life.

This book celebrates all the color, shadow and light and love of language that possessed Claire Clube, and it is the creation and testament of a born poet, who lived the life and paid the price too soon. May it be a worthy monument, to be read and treasured.