![\n<\/a>](\"http:\/\/alisonstephen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/blackbirds2.jpg\"){kind=link}
\n<\/a>
![\"13](\"http:\/\/alisonstephen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/alisonstephen_blackbirds2.jpg\" "\\"alisonstephen_blackbirds\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nI
\nAmong twenty snowy mountains,
\nThe only moving thing
\nWas the eye of the blackbird.<\/p>\n
II
\nI was of three minds,
\nLike a tree
\nIn which there are three blackbirds.<\/p>\n
III
\nThe blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
\nIt was a small part of the pantomime.<\/p>\n
IV
\nA man and a woman
\nAre one.
\nA man and a woman and a blackbird
\nAre one.<\/p>\n
V
\nI do not know which to prefer,
\nThe beauty of inflections
\nOr the beauty of innuendoes,
\nThe blackbird whistling
\nOr just after.<\/p>\n
VI
\nIcicles filled the long window
\nWith barbaric glass.
\nThe shadow of the blackbird
\nCrossed it, to and fro.
\nThe mood
\nTraced in the shadow
\nAn indecipherable cause.<\/p>\n
VII
\nO thin men of Haddam,
\nWhy do you imagine golden birds?
\nDo you not see how the blackbird
\nWalks around the feet
\nOf the women about you?<\/p>\n
VIII
\nI know noble accents
\nAnd lucid, inescapable rhythms;
\nBut I know, too,
\nThat the blackbird is involved
\nIn what I know.<\/p>\n
IX
\nWhen the blackbird flew out of sight,
\nIt marked the edge
\nOf one of many circles.<\/p>\n
X
\nAt the sight of blackbirds
\nFlying in a green light,
\nEven the bawds of euphony
\nWould cry out sharply.<\/p>\n
XI
\nHe rode over Connecticut
\nIn a glass coach.
\nOnce, a fear pierced him,
\nIn that he mistook
\nThe shadow of his equipage
\nFor blackbirds.<\/p>\n
XII
\nThe river is moving.
\nThe blackbird must be flying.<\/p>\n
XIII
\nIt was evening all afternoon.
\nIt was snowing
\nAnd it was going to snow.
\nThe blackbird sat
\nIn the cedar-limbs.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I finally got around to doing something I’ve always thought about– illustrating the poem “13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” by Wallace Stevens (1917). 16 x 16 inches, Ink and Acrylic on gesso board. I Among twenty snowy mountains, … Continue reading