Poetry Expansion Labette: Ways of Looking Exercise

1/19/2015

Exercise inspired by Wallace Stevens' poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird"

See comments for January 11, 2015 Poetry Expansion Labette poems from participants.

5 Comments

Virginia Schultz

1/19/2015 07:46:57 am

Eight Ways of Looking at Desertion

From underneath there’s a weighty blankness
From the side bone-chilling emptiness
From within a vast vibration-less longing
From above the oblique absence of shadow

In my eyes only un-refracted light
In my ears a boisterous vacuum
In my hands neither warmth nor wetness
On My tongue the exact opposite of bitterness

Virginia Schultz
Poetry Expansion Labette
Inspired by Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird – Wallace Stevens
January 11, 2015
Louisville, CO

Coco Go

1/19/2015 08:03:59 am

32+28 WAYS OF

A many edge circle
In that hot springs
Sandra spins her hat
Brimmed wide waves

He heckles the same as
Barbaric glass icycles at
Some other glacier time
It seems
But it is too hot
For unaffecting bonds of euphony

Mean-spirit latching
Into Sandra’s cedar blaze reflections
Flash, sweat, shot in her camera
As she twirls like golden birds
In love and mating

He moves with swift innuendo
Inflecting his gait
But before inflicting
Fear fierces me
I close my eyes
Become Eagle
Flying above him
Swoop & pluck him up
Fling him out
Off the earth

He must be still flying there
Everywhere nowhere
As I open my eyes
Sandra’s glee still spins her hat
He is gone
I hold Eagleness
In my BRST
Body Reaction System Tracker
Forever since

Like my dreams

I know these TIKYSK things
T I K Y S K
Things I know You Should Know
Up in the past saved
Like the endless cedars
Under sand
Seen by infra-ray Red
Spinning by the smiles of Sandra

In her inter-vestiges –vestigations
32 Ways like John Cage
13 Ways like Wallace
I sit at the piano
Improvise my 32 Ways
Of looking at a Blackbird

That was all so long ago

I have that audio cassette
Can call it back
Look up Cage’s
Progressions by doubling
Music of life’s annoyances
The many edged circle
Holds me on that edge begin again
In this hot heating circle

Even if slightly tilt
& off as fruit grows

Coco Go
January 11, 2015

Steve Arney

1/19/2015 08:17:05 am

Thirteen Blackbirds Looking at the Way

1. A path leading into the forest
2. The smell of a worm emerging from the ground
3. A carcass of last year's lover emerging from the worm
4. North in the summer, south in the winter
5. Branches moving out of the way as wings beat the air
6. A dark night lit by falling stars
7. An egg shell shattered by a new-born beak
8. A nest of twigs blown asunder by a restless gale
9. A bird feeder newly filled with black sunflowers
10. A fog rolling up the canyon and filling the gulch with liquid air
11. A high dive off a thunderhead into a pool of light
12. Looking through a human's house window, spotting a book of philosophy, wondering what's the point
13. A path leading out of the forest

Steve Arney
January 11, 2015

Jeff Arney

1/19/2015 08:23:28 am

6 Ways of Seeing a Deer

1| a majestic animal bounding thru the lush green forests and over fences
2| a nuisance eating my garden's vegetables and flowers away away
3| thru a scope of a rifle in hope of providing food on the table and warmth from their hides
4| hung on a wall, mounted, posed starring into oblivion forever
5| as a mother caring for her fawns teaching them to survive and thrive
6| as a part of the circle of life brought into this world to provide life

Steve Arney

1/19/2015 08:26:10 am

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Poem

1. Right side up
2. Wrong side down
3. Sideways
4. Upside down
5. Left to right
6. Right to left
7. Top to bottom
8. Bottom to top
9. Eyes wide open
10. Eyes shut tight
11. While dancing
12. While sleeping
13. Late at night, all alone

Steve Arney
January 11, 2015

Poetry Expansion Labette: Ways of Looking Exercise

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