The sonnet sequence, "My Human Disguise," of 630 ekphrastic poems, was begun February 2011. It can be found beginning with the January 20, 2022 post and working backwards. Going forward are 20 poems called "Terzata," beginning on January 27, 2022. Fifty Terzata can be found among the links on the right. A new series of dramatic monologues follows on the blog roll, followed by a series of formal poems, each based on a single word.
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Thursday, December 5, 2024
Of a Blackbird Looking at Thin Trees Sway (with apologies to Wallace Stevens)
1.
The trees move and I am Not moving.
2. My eye is not the only eye. There is one other.
3. I fly between the branches But do not find a perch--too many leaves falling.
4. I am alone as a blind eye. I was once Not alone. I have forgotten why.
5. The wind whistles in the branches And I whistle--the sounds exactly the same.
6. Ice on the grass this morning. Soon the snow Will catch my shadow as I pass from tree to tree. I know exactly why I am here.
7. I watch for the one with talons. I cannot chase him like the little ones. I think of him, at night, huddled on the opposite Side of the black bole.
8. I know all the inflections of birds and of branches. They know That I can sing louder than the moon.
9. From above, the trees look like black suns Against the dying grass. There is no Perch at the center of a sun.
10. My fellows cry out as they pass. They see these trees with my eye And do not want them for their own.
11. I do not fear anything And nothing fears me Except the trees.
12. I must be going soon-- Once the river and the trees Stop moving.
13. The dark grows long as day And there are no more leaves. The snow stings my eye. I have already left Before I fly.
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