Advice to a Blue-Bird
Who can make a delicate adventure
Of walking on the ground?
Who can make grass-blades
Arcades for pertly careless straying?
You alone, who skim against these leaves,
Turning all desire into light whips
Moulded by your deep blue wing-tips,
You who shrill your unconcern
Into the sternly antique sky.
You to whom all things
Hold an equal kiss of touch.
Mincing, wanton blue-bird,
Grimace at the hoofs of passing men.
You alone can lose yourself
Within a sky, and rob it of its blue!
Credit
This poem is in the public domain.
About this Poem
“Advice to a Blue-Bird” was published in Advice: A Book of Poems (Knopf, 1920).
Author
Maxwell Bodenheim
Maxwell Bodenheim, born in 1892 in Hermanville, Mississippi, was a poet and novelist active in the early twentieth-century literary scenes of Chicago and New York’s Greenwich Village. He wrote many books, including Minna and Myself (Pagan Publishing Company, 1918); Advice (Alfred A. Knopf, 1920); Introducing Irony (Boni and Liveright, 1922); and the novel Blackguard (Covici-McGee Publishers, 1923).
Date Published
11/07/2015