NaPoWriMo 2012: April 13- Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Night Sky

April 13... Makes me think of Wallace Stevens's "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." I printed that poem out today and cut it into pieces, giving each of my sixth graders a randomly selected piece of the 13 to read. We talked about it and then I let them loose, asking them to pick something and to look at it 13 ways. Subjects ranged from chihuahuas to shoes to clouds to God. Very cool. Here is my little offering.
________

Thirteen Ways of Looking at Stars

1

As a child

I saw pinpricks

In a black velvet blanket

Great fires beyond.   

2

Gazing upward   

Toward the beginning of time.   

3

Even when tempests

Stir thunderclouds

With windgusts

They shine   

4

When you are far away

I kiss my hand and wave

At the brightest star

On Orion’s belt

I hope you realize.   

5

Someone spilled

celestial milk   

6

This spinning stage

Crammed with actors

Fools and villains

Too many props

Elaborate sets

Audacious lighting

Tangled plots

Predictable endings

All for the silent

Audience above.   

7

O stars!

Can you not speak

Can you not tell me

Which path to choose?

For surely you can see the way.   

8

You seem to be

Right here next to me

But like the stars

We live separated

By light years

And Darkness

9

Right now in Tuolome Meadows

Above the trees and beyond El Capitan,

The stars outnumber the blades of grass.   

10

If I close my eyes and listen hard

I can hear the stars singing

to the universe

one song.   

11

He he slept restless

In the open

Until that night, a fear pierced him,   

In that he mistook   

The stars in the sky   

For headlights.   

12

The stars are moving.   

The earth must be turning.   

13

The stars undulated on the lake’s surface

And they peered at their own reflection

Though the bare branches

of the apple tree.