What Happens When We Die? This Poem Has Thoughts.

A.O. Scott contemplates the great unknown in Wallace Stevens’s “Of Mere Being.”

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Isabella Cotier

By A.O. Scott and Aliza Aufrichtig

A.O. Scott is a critic at large for the Book Review. Aliza Aufrichtig is a visual journalist.

March 25, 2026

Whatever you do, don’t think of a bird.

Now: What kind of bird are you not thinking about? A pigeon? A bald eagle? Something more poetic, like a skylark or a nightingale? In any case, would you say that this bird you aren’t thinking about is real?

Before you answer, read this poem, which is quite literally about not thinking of a bird.

Of   Mere   Being  

by   Wallace   Stevens  

The   palm   at   the   end   of   the   mind ,