1.
Iridescent shutters its feathers
a black crow crows
a storm is over.
2.
First degree murder
in heaven
all fall down
through fire’s big flare
and a white crow
smudges itself
on the ashes.
3.
Gold glow eye
stickle prickle
crow blow
magic
4.
A crash of crows
blacken a dog’s bone.
5.
Between eye and sky
knows no crow call
more serious
than skinny early spring arrival.
6.
Dropped shaft of warning
crippled hip sway dance
geometric turn of crow beak
one-brow eye examination.
7.
One-eyed angst
prancing on cedar branch
watching garden grow
crow.
8.
God’s anvil grown cold
metal on metal clang
blacker than crow’s craw.
9.
Swarmy balmy seaside
watching mist roll in
on crow-swift wing.
10.
Dire warning’s messenger
bragging on bare reach
speaks of eating crow
and gut-wrench poisoning.
11.
It’s only black or white
but crow hidden in shadowed gray
tricks the blinded eye.
12.
Beware a raucous cry
in burned down forest
crow careening over flood
of raw flesh turned black
13.
Crow-hop, brother,
dance your slant-eyed round
so we know mystics and mysteries
ride your heavy breath.
Author notes
prompt:
Thirteen ways of looking at a blackbird can be found here:
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/stevens-13ways.html
an experiment in written Cubism
In a list
A contest entry
- Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by film.
700 points, ended January 11, 11 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Please tell me what you think
Comments
1 - 5 of 5
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This is a great response to Wallace Steven's poem, and a valuable look beyond the veil of Native American culture. It also resonates on a primal level, that of myth and gods who inhabit the living things around us, and the warning voice of the seer.
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I know and love Wallace Stevens' Thriteen ways of looking at a black bird.
This dance with the Crow is something else indeed. It moves in the foot prints of myth and magic and captures the elegant wonder of man looking at the mystical navel of the world and find only his foolishness staring back at him.
Love, Tom B.
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Wowzer. 
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Cool! This is an amazing take on a prompt I could never have written anything about. The ending is perfect. I like number 2 the best, just for the way the beginning sounds: "First degree murder/in heaven". Good luck in the contest!
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Drawn by the squeeking dark wing in the winter wood
I love this piece.
You know my dear Carol, Now I must enter
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