Blackbird ArchiveSelections from ‘The Magic Life’
An introduction to Steve Scafidi's selections from 'The Magic Life,' an unpublished manuscript of poems centered on Abraham Lincoln.
A poem imagining a circus trapeze catcher's life on tour, including a hidden romance, set in 1831.
PoetryThe DragonA poem imagining Abraham Lincoln pacing a night train, his restless mind likened to a dragon hurtling through the dark.
PoetryManuscript EpigraphsTwo epigraphs, from Emerson and from a childhood friend of Lincoln's, framing a manuscript about growing into character.
PoetryThe FellingA poem about a boy ordered to cut down a blooming horse chestnut tree for his father, and his grief as it falls.
PoetryThe FireA poem set during a prairie fire outside Springfield, intercut with an intimate scene between two lovers as the city burns.
PoetryThe JunebugsA poem in which a father and son delight in a swarm of junebugs, an episode that echoes forward to Lincoln's assassination.
PoetryThe LawA poem imagining a young Lincoln reading law and history in fanciful cloud-formed and bee-spelled texts.
PoetryThe MustacheA poem about a man's flamboyant mustache and the friends who eventually cut it off.
PoetryThe TubaA poem imagining young Lincoln following a golden tuba carried through the woods by a Shawnee man, an image that stays with him into adulthood.
PoetryThe WeathervaneA poem depicting an enslaved family being separated and sold at auction, witnessed by a young Lincoln.