John Ashbery
I go on loving you like water butthere is a terrible breath in the way all of this — John Ashbery, from “The Tennis Court Oath,” The Tennis Court Oath: A Book of Poems. (Wesleyan; 35th edition April 1, 2011) Originally published 1962.
Tag: John Ashbery
John Ashbery
There is that sound like the windForgetting in the branches that means somethingNobody can translate. And there is the sobering ‘later on,’When you consider what a thing meant, and put it down. — John Ashbery, from “Summer,” Selected Poems (Viking Penguin, 1985)
John Ashbery
Alone with our madness and favorite flowerWe see that there really is nothing left to write about.Or rather, it is necessary to write about the same old thingsIn the same way, repeating the same things over and overFor love to continue and be gradually different. — John Ashbery, from “Late Echo,” As We Know. (Penguin… Continue reading John Ashbery
John Ashbery
SomethingOught to be written about how this affectsYou when you write poetry:The extreme austerity of an almost empty mindColliding with the lush, Rousseau-like foliage of its desire to communicateSomething between breaths, if only for the sakeOf others and their desire to understand you and desert youFor other centers of communication, so that understandingMay begin,… Continue reading John Ashbery
John Ashbery
You meant more than life to me. I lived throughyou not knowing, not knowing I was living. — John Ashbery, opening lines to “The New Higher,” Where Shall I Wander (HarperCollins, 2005)
John Ashbery
We never live long enough in our livesto know what today is like. — John Ashbery, from “The Improvement,” And the Stars were Shining (Noonday Press, 1994)
John Ashbery
Heck, it’s anybody’s story,A sentimental journey—“gonna take a sentimental journey,”And we do, but you wake up under the table of a dream:You are that dream, and it is the seventh layer of you.We haven’t moved an inch, and everything has changed. — John Ashbery, from “More Pleasant Adventures,“ A Wave (Open Road Media, 2014; first… Continue reading John Ashbery
John Ashbery
Late Echo Alone with our madness and favorite flowerWe see that there really is nothing left to write about.Or rather, it is necessary to write about the same old thingsIn the same way, repeating the same things over and overFor love to continue and be gradually different. Beehives and ants have to be re-examined eternallyAnd… Continue reading John Ashbery
John Ashbery
Our star was brighter perhaps when it had water in it.Now there is no question even of that, but onlyOf holding on to the hard earth so as not to get thrown off,With an occasional dream, a vision: a robin flies acrossThe upper corner of the window, you brush your hair awayAnd cannot quite see,… Continue reading John Ashbery
John Ashbery
I am somewhere else, alone as usual.I must get back to my elegy. — John Ashbery, closing lines to “Novelty Love Trot,” Where Shall I Wander (Ecco, 2005)
The Vale of Soul-Making 