pale imitation
by Anna Dickie
| I | last leaf on the cherry tree
the colour of a blackbird’s beak
|
| II | blackbird
silent in briar the river must be frozen yet
|
| III | blackbird
out in the darkness take me back
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| IV | I know when I leave
your dark flight will beat my bounds
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| V | the whistle of a blackbird
above another urban dawn
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| VI | three blue-green eggs
which to prefer, new life or the promise of it
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| VII | blackbird and woman
the perfect marriage of blossom and thorn
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| VIII | our figs are ripe
the blackbird says
|
| IX | driving in low light
heart stopped by a blackbird’s swoop
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| X | dusk in the orchard
where a vigorous shadow is knifing fruit
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| XI | a blackbird scolds
and she breaks off her homily, and puts away her speech
|
| XII | a man, a woman, a blackbird
winged bit players in a pantomime
|
| XIII | many black birds,
one blackbird |
Note: Anna writes of the European blackbird, Turdus merula, which is in the thrush family, rather than the North American species, which are icterids. For further information on this common British bird please see here.
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Sound of the blackbird by inchadney at Freesound.org (Creative Commons Attribution licence)
Anna Dickie started writing poetry in her late forties and has been published widely. Her first pamphlet Heart Notes was published by Calder Wood Press, and last autumn Imprint, a collaboration with fellow poet Irene Brown, was published by jaggnath press. Her poem “Snow” has just been anthologised in Not Only the Dark, a book in aid of Shelterbox, a charity providing worldwide disaster relief, and she recently took part in BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Workshop with the poet, writer and broadcaster Ruth Padel. She also performs with a poetry group called Poetrio.
qarrtsiluni 
Beautifully read and very atmospheric, Anna. Well done!
Lovely poem – so musical & evocative & mysterious. Fantastic reading, as well.
True to the original but beautiful in its own right. Love the reading, too. Stevens would not sound so lyrical since he was from Reading, Pennsylvania!
Beautifully rendered and read.
blackbird
out in the darkness
take me back
Made the hairs on my head stand up… Thank you for this lush gathering.
Thank you all for the kind and thoughtful comments, and sorry for my delay in replying, but my pc is in the process of being replaced, and for some reason I can’t post from my ipad. I have a bit of a cheek even attempting this, which I’m sure others will concur with. But I do love the blackbird and the place it has in our hearts.
Love the poem read over the blackbird’s song. Not sure about “pale” imitation…
I had the joy of witnessing the first image with Anna in a Scottish garden last autumn – she pointed it out – leaf/beak/bird. Anna, from that fleeting moment you have made something haunting.
K & R thanks for you kind comments. R that lovely morning will live with me for a long while. Let’s hope Spring is as inspiring…