Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

I am in a place where I can see the ocean and the expanse of the sky. Recently I was surprised by the red moon slowly coming up over the horizon. I had forgotten what that splendor would be. Perhaps I have also forgotten what  it is like to investigate my life in a wider, not deeper way.

When I first moved to New York City, our apartment in Battery Park City looked up at the World Trade Center towers. It was a vertical outlook. Those years we would travel to Santa Fe, New Mexico and enjoy the expanse of the great sky and light. There was a wideness to the land which gave a view that was unlimited.

Vertical thinking is an analytical and sequential process. It is directed toward problem solving and is often used in academia. Neither vertical nor horizontal thinking is bound by geography. Each thinking strategy has its advantages and disadvantages. It is good to know how we think and how differently we think. I used to see my career in a sequential way, one job after another. However, one step out of step can shake up that way of thinking.

I believe that I think horizontally. I approach a problem from different points of view. When I am in the midst of change, it is important for me to respond to it. As I now look at my life after this move, there are three parts of my life that I am studying. What do I have to give?  What can I learn? And thirdly, am I in the best mind frame possible to maximize my ideas and to experience them?

The title of this piece comes from a poem by Wallace Stevens called “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.”  He wrote a verse for each different way one could see a blackbird.  The fifth verse reads:

Outside my window in my sun-filled office is a suet of woodpecker dough. Blackbirds have flocked to it. I am reminded that I, too, can attract life in this manner. In doing so I will enjoy both the inflections and the innuendoes.

Protestant Cemetery, Rome, Italy