Warren Woessner is an avid birder. That much is evident when reading the bird column which often reports details of his sightings around the Island. But in his poetry, in particular his new book Exit Sky, it becomes clear that bird watching is not merely categorizing for him. It is an art form that by extension both anchors his poetry and helps it rise above the natural world into the metaphysical.

His poems take a close look at life and help the reader do the same. Many include birds—at rest, in flight, poised, swooping, circling, spiraling— but many do not. But they all have in common a quiet pace that slows the pulse and quickens the mind.

On Saturday, Sept. 28 Mr. Woessner will present his new book of poems at a reading at the Edgartown Library, beginning at 2 p.m. This will be unlike any other poetry reading. Mr. Woessner has teamed up with avian photographer Lanny McDowell and pianist David Stanwood to create a 90-minute performance piece they call Out of the Blue.

For an appetizer of what is to come on Saturday, here is Mr. Woessner’s poem Open House:

In November, the forest feels
downhearted.
Someone left all the doors
and windows open!

Fall is in foreclosure:
the heat has been turned off,
the light evicted, leaves fallen
like fading “for sale” signs.

Some tenants won’t move.
Juncos and sparrows
pick off weed seeds.
One Robin brightens a hackberry.

I sit alone on a stone bench.
The old hermit, Han Shan,
sits down with me.
We scribble poems on dead leaves.