Consider the Rooster

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST POETRY COLLECTIONS OF 2024 BY LIT HUB AND ELECTRIC LITERATUREFINALIST FOR THE 2024 NBCC AWARD IN POETRYFINALIST FOR THE 2025 CLMP FIRECRACKER AWARD IN POETRYConsider the Rooster serves as an ode to a roosters crow, a catalyst for awakening, both literally and figuratively.Amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic, the aftermath of George Floyds murder by police, and the resulting upsurge in reactionary right-wing militia violence, a neighbor in Kalamazoo, Michigan threatens to call the police after discovering the authors pet rooster. The rooster sounds the alarm and our author wakes to revolutionary transformation. An ecological consciousness embedded in these verses invites readers to acknowledge their place in a web of relations. Oliver Baez Bendorfs voice resounds through liminal spaces, at dusk and dawn, across personal meditations and wider cultural awakenings to form a collection overflowing with freedom, rebellion, mischief, and song.