Photo by Tracy Grumach
Homage to Wallace Stevens and His Thirteen-Sided Bird
I.
Instead of finding thirteen ways to look
at one
blackbird,
I get stuck in one way
of looking at
thirteen.
II.
Like the thin men of Haddam, I look
for golden birds, not gleaning
the ebon sheen of present
wings, or worse, mistake it
for the shadow
of my own equipage.
III.
O Wallace, Sage of Hartford–Connect(itcut) me
with nothing that is not there, and also
the nothing that is;
the path flown by the
blackbird, hard to miss, harder still
to trace.
IV.
I often revisit
regrets.
Blackbirds circle
the chaff-strewn field, cawing
when they land.
V.
“Should” is a word to which
no blackbird
pays much mind.
VI.
My mind, when sad,
ia like a tree in which
there are no
blackbirds.
VII.
Sometimes the heart takes flight, sighting, hawk-like,
the bright eye of an idea.
Other times the heart takes flight
simply because it has seen
a blackbird.
VIII.
A man and a woman are one.
A man, a woman and a blackbird
are a man, a woman and a blackbird.
IX.
No blackbird will ever
be baked into one
of my pies.
X.
Blackbird singing in the dead of night,
thank you.
XI.
When I want to see a blackbird, I just shut
my eyes. It helps if there’s bright
sun.
XII.
In city rains, each droplet carries one small speck
of
blackbird.
XIII.
The tree trunks stretch limbs of jet black wing;
my heart expands and constricts at once;
in this, it is like
the blackbird.
The blackbird, wings beating, labors,
then soars; in this, it is like
my heart.
********************************
I’m sorry that many of you may have already seen an earlier version of this poem! A draft was originally written fot the the beautiful photograph of Tracy Grumbach, above, a dVerse Poets Pub Poetics prompt, and also, of course, “Thirteen Ways of Looking At A Blackbird” by the incomparable Wallace Stevens. I am not sure if Tracy’s photograph is really of blackbirds–they look more like raptors to me–but the Stevens came to mind, so I used a bit of poetic and ornithologic license.
I am re-posting this for dVerse Poetics Meeting the Bar challenge to write about allusion – hosted by Victoria C. Slotto.
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