Heavy Lead Birdsong by Ryler Dustin (Second Edition)

Paperback • Available for preorder OCT 1 2026.

Now in a new, expanded edition, Ryler Dustin's Heavy Lead Birdsong is still famous for taking a left turn exactly when you think you know where a poem is headed.

Cover design by Derrick C. Brown and Defri.

One minute you're reading about an orchard growing inside someone's chest. The next, you're following angels past boxcar graffiti or trekking into the Ice Age, searching for the truth of how we have survived this long. This is for fans of fun, romantic, heartbreaking, adventurous poetry.

This second edition transcends modern political sorrows to celebrate the kind of human spirit that can save us. Inspired by science and religion, grounded in subtle humor, these poems rise off the page to meet..

the softest part of you, right here, in the sweet bruise

of your breath, this unfolding

where you live between yourself

and the world and speaking it.

Ryler Dustin grew up in Bellingham, Washington, where he met the friends who introduced him to poetry and continue to inspire him. A finalist for both the Ruth Lilly Prize and the Only Poems' 2026 Poet of the Year contest, his work bridges the gaps between people to celebrate the common strangeness of being.