Kathleen Lynch won the Black Zinnias Press national poetry award for Hinge (2006). Her chapbooks include How to Build an Owl, No Spring Chicken, Alterations of Rising, and Kathleen Lynch—Greatest Hits (Pudding House invitational series).
HOW TO BUILD AN OWL
Kathleen Lynch
1. Decide you must.
2. Develop deep respect
for feather, bone, claw.
3. Place your trembling thumb
where the heart will be:
for one hundred hours watch
so you will know
where to put the first feather.
4. Stay awake forever.
When the bird takes shape
gently pry open its beak
and whisper into it: mouse
5. Let it go.