Creeping After

In the context of a declining avian soundscape, this research investigates poetic mimicry as a species-specific method of sympoiesis, or making-with, the Eurasian jay. The work emerges at the intersection of queer ecologies, queer ecopoetics, animal and literary studies, and with the “chatty acorn-eater,” Garrulus glandarius. Like the jay’s skreek, the paper explores the ways queer voices – and my poetic voice – transgress categorisation, as well as normative temporalities. Through three specific examples, I propose “creeping after” as an interspecies method of troubling original/mimicked poetic voice. Leaning (uncomfortably) close into the unsettling pleasure of boundary dissolution, this research pries and pilfers into the creation of poems as “creepy doubles.” Creeping after offers a methodological approach that integrates sustained interspecies encounter with creative-critical practice. While developing particularly Garrulus methods, the research invites other practitioners to explore the potential of poetic making- (and riddling-) with another single species. Beyond ecopoetics, this work possesses – or is possessed by – questions of non-human minds and the disruption of language through interspecies encounters. Nodding to the thrilling-but-terrifying potential of our ecosystemic bodies and voices, “creeping after” highlights the productive instability of all supposedly authentic expression. As a generous, generative practice, hopping between the branches of disciplines, it issues an invitation to embrace birdwatching and tactical poetic performance as creepy methods.