This month's challenge was to write in the style of Wallace Stevens' poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. Since 13 stanzas is a lot, we gave ourselves some grace and decided to go for only seven ways of looking at something.
A small group of us met on Zoom Sunday to write and discuss the prompt. I left that session thoroughly confused about what my topic should be. I tried writing poems on the Statue of Liberty, sunflowers, the color blue, and clouds. None of those got me more than a few stanzas, and they weren't pretty. I wondered if following the mentor poem more closely might set me on the right track. I chose the bird I regularly see on my walk to work as my subject and ultimately found my way through the poem. I will return to this one because I may just have six more stanzas in me to get this poem to the magic number of thirteen.
Seven Ways of Looking at a Heron
I
The lake hosts a gaggle of geese
a paddling of ducks
and one unmoving heron
II
I relish the empty house
Like the pond
claimed by a solitary heron
III
In the gray light of dawn, heron waits
a fixture in the daily ebb and flow
IV
Heron knows
all things are difficult before they are easy
V
A wader and the water
are one
A wader, the water, and a fish
become one
VI
Heron glides across the water
breakfast in her belly
bloodstain on her neck
VII
I prefer the quiet of the heron
Ducks quack, geese honk
breaking the morning stillness
I understand the heron
You can find the poems shared by my Poetry Sisters at the links below.
Would you like to try the next challenge? In October, we are writing to a prompt from the book The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets Who Teach, edited by Robin Behn and Chase Twichell.
This week, Irene Latham of Live Your Poem is hosting Poetry Friday. I hope you'll take some time to check out all the poetic things being shared today. Happy Poetry Friday, friends!
