13 Ways of Looking at a Circus April 2014 | Page 22

The crowd goes wild
After the tiger leaps through
The Circle of Fire
The tiger was “awesome”
The crowd cheers
“We want the tiger.”
Jamison

Looking at the clown
Performing in the light
Even the silliest of clowns
Will faint at the sight
Allychan

I
Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.

At the sight of rope walkers performing
Even the mimes will say “Wow”.
Kevin

The clown riding his tricycle
All around the stage
Making the crowd laugh with delight
Wanting to have the spotlight forever
Vanessa

III
The blackbird whirled in the
autumn winds.
It was a small part of the
pantomime.
IV
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a
blackbird
Are one.
V
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.

At the sight of the lion’s
Roaring at the audience
Even the roar would burn
the audience’s soul
Chris
The ringmaster walks over
To the center stage
In a draped coat grabbing
the audience’s attention
Joanna

II
I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three
blackbirds.

VI
Icicles filled the long window
With barbaric glass.
The shadow of the blackbird
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.
VII
O thin men of Haddam,
Why do you imagine golden
birds?
Do you not see how the blackbird
Walks around the feet
Of the women about you?
VIII
I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.

XI
He rode over Connecticut
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For blackbirds.

IX
When the blackbird flew out of
sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.
X
At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.
XI
He rode over Connecticut
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For blackbirds.
XII
The river is moving.
The blackbird must be flying.
XIII
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar-limbs.