What a blackbird told me is real and alive

Abstract

In this lyric essay, the rediscovery of poetry in the mid career of an analyst and its enlivening impact on the analyst's voice and creative strivings is addressed through three primary influences: the poems of Wallace Stevens, the writing of Thomas Ogden, and a second analysis. Reading and writing poetry enabled the author to understand the complexity and ephemeral quality of sustaining a passionate voice throughout her personal and professional life. A poem by Stevens, Thirteen ways of looking at a blackbird, is used as an organizing structure for this essay, with the thoughts of Thomas Ogden informing her renewed analytic voice. The author asks the reader to read Stevens’ poem twice in its entirety, once at the beginning and again at the end of the essay.

Keywords:

• real and alive
• passion
• rediscovery
• poetry
• beyond words
• description
• revelation
• blackbird

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ona Lindquist

Ona Lindquist, LCSW, was appointed senior supervisor at the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health, New York, and an instructor on the analytic training program of the American Institute of Psychoanalysis of the Karen Horney Psychoanalytic Center, New York. She is a supervisor in the Chinese American Psychoanalytic Association, and a member of the International Association of Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy and National Association of Social Workers. She is currently in private practice in New York