Top 6 Quotes by Christopher Cokinos

Time is the deepest wilderness in which we wander.

Time is the deepest wilderness in which we wander.

Christopher Cokinos

Wilderness, Wander

Christopher Cokinos (2009). “Hope Is the Thing With Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds”, p.53, Penguin

Curiosity began my journey, which led to regret, which brings me always to wonder and dedication.

Christopher Cokinos

Regret, Journey, Dedication

Christopher Cokinos (2009). “Hope Is the Thing With Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds”, p.3, Penguin

This is the planet teeming, this place we’ve come to and will leave tomorrow, deepened for the long return but not the wedded reach, the losing touch of self to self, contented more or less and known not nearly well enough.

Christopher Cokinos

Self, Long, Return

Christopher Cokinos (2013). “Bodies, of the Holocene”, p.16, Truman State University Press

That I had never heard of such a bird did not surprise me.... But others more experienced also did not know of the Carolina Parakeet. The more I spoke of the bird, the more it seemed that, somehow, its existence had been a chimera. Admittedly, my survey was small and unscientific, but intelligent people who could reel off the names of various dinosaurs and identify sparrows at epic distances could not name the forgotten parakeet. I realized, forcefully, what I suppose I knew abstractly: Histories, like species, can go extinct.

Christopher Cokinos

Distance, Epic, Intelligent

Christopher Cokinos (2009). “Hope Is the Thing With Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds”, p.12, Penguin

Later, I learned that our forgetting of the parakeet had begun even before the species was extinct.

Christopher Cokinos

Forget, Environment, Parakeets

Christopher Cokinos (2009). “Hope Is the Thing With Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds”, p.12, Penguin

I read, for the first time, of the Carolina Parakeet-a North American parakeet whose green, yellow and reddish-orange plumage appeared vivacious and altogether quite wonderful. As stunning as I found the hawk-chased conures, this bird astounded me even more. That the Carolina Parakeet was extinct simply added to my amazement.

Christopher Cokinos

Yellow, Orange, Bird

Christopher Cokinos (2009). “Hope Is the Thing With Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds”, p.12, Penguin