THIRTEEN WAYS OF LOOKING AT A COWBIRD

I
Among twenty lowing Holsteins,
The only moving things
Were the flies and the cowbird.

II
I was of three minds,
Like a nest
In which there are six eggs.

III
The cowbird whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.

IV
A male cowbird and a female cowbird
Are one.
A male cowbird and a female cowbird and a finch
Are one.

V
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The cowbird screaming
Or just after.

VI
Icicles filled the long window
With barbaric glass.
The shadow of the cowbird
Was nowhere to be seen.

VII
O thin men of Haddam,
Why do you imagine golden birds?
Do you not see how the cowbird
Pecks around the feet
Of the cattle about you?

VIII
I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the cowbird isn’t involved
In what I don’t know.

IX
When the cowbird flew out of sight,
It sought the edge
Of one of many nests.

X
At the sight of cowbirds
Flying in a green light,
Even the bards of phony
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 cowbirds.

XII
The river is moving.
The cowbird must be fleeing.

XIII
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The cowbird sat
In Mexican cedar-limbs.