This creative thesis, History Has the Voice of a Bird-Filled Tree, is a collection of poems about the communal, familial, and physical landscapes we grow up in. The manuscript explores the accidental body of knowledge we accumulate over a lifetime: those lessons we do not actively seek to learn and that no one sets out to teach us, but that mark us, and make us who we are. The landscape of this manuscript is not an exact replication of an existing town or existing family, but what the poet Richard Hugo refers to as a “triggering town.” This removal frees the internal biographer and historian to write openly about experiences without guilt or sanitization of a symbolic past. The narrative is mostly true with just enough fibbery to protect both the innocent and guilty alike.
","abstract_html":"<p>This creative thesis, History Has the Voice of a Bird-Filled Tree, is a collection of poems about the communal, familial, and physical landscapes we grow up in. The manuscript explores the accidental body of knowledge we accumulate over a lifetime: those lessons we do not actively seek to learn and that no one sets out to teach us, but that mark us, and make us who we are. The landscape of this manuscript is not an exact replication of an existing town or existing family, but what the poet Richard Hugo refers to as a “triggering town.” This removal frees the internal biographer and historian to write openly about experiences without guilt or sanitization of a symbolic past. The narrative is mostly true with just enough fibbery to protect both the innocent and guilty alike.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Fisk, Brent Allen"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":"Department of English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Tom Hunley (Director), Kelly Reames, Dale Rigby"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2013,"date_issued":"2013-08-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2013-08-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:08:26Z","subjects":["Poetry Collection","Family and Community Narratives","Creative Writing","Communities in Literature","Poetry"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1291","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Tom Hunley (Director), Kelly Reames, Dale Rigby"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Fisk, Brent Allen"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Department of English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Poetry Collection","Family and Community Narratives","Creative Writing","Communities in Literature","Poetry"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1291"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This creative thesis, History Has the Voice of a Bird-Filled Tree, is a collection of poems about the communal, familial, and physical landscapes we grow up in. The manuscript explores the accidental body of knowledge we accumulate over a lifetime: those lessons we do not actively seek to learn and that no one sets out to teach us, but that mark us, and make us who we are. The landscape of this manuscript is not an exact replication of an existing town or existing family, but what the poet Richard Hugo refers to as a “triggering town.” This removal frees the internal biographer and historian to write openly about experiences without guilt or sanitization of a symbolic past. The narrative is mostly true with just enough fibbery to protect both the innocent and guilty alike.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["History Has the Voice of a Bird-Filled Tree"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Tom Hunley (Director), Kelly Reames, Dale Rigby"],"dc:creator":["Fisk, Brent Allen"],"dc:description.abstract":["This creative thesis, History Has the Voice of a Bird-Filled Tree, is a collection of poems about the communal, familial, and physical landscapes we grow up in. The manuscript explores the accidental body of knowledge we accumulate over a lifetime: those lessons we do not actively seek to learn and that no one sets out to teach us, but that mark us, and make us who we are. The landscape of this manuscript is not an exact replication of an existing town or existing family, but what the poet Richard Hugo refers to as a “triggering town.” This removal frees the internal biographer and historian to write openly about experiences without guilt or sanitization of a symbolic past. The narrative is mostly true with just enough fibbery to protect both the innocent and guilty alike.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1291"],"dc:subject":["Poetry Collection","Family and Community Narratives","Creative Writing","Communities in Literature","Poetry"],"dc:title":["History Has the Voice of a Bird-Filled Tree"],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Department of English"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:08:26Z"}