Ashbery: Collected Poems 1956-1987
If John Ashbery鈥檚 widely acclaimed status in literary circles as 鈥渢he great living American poet鈥� were ever in doubt, the recent publication of his Collected Poems 1956-1987 as part of the prestigious Library of America series would serve to cement that stature.
This is the first time this publisher has honored a preeminent living poet. Volume One of a projected two-volume set, this almost 1,000-page collection reprints Ashbery鈥檚 first dozen books and also includes 60 previous unpublished poems from the past 40 years.
Why is this publication of the work of this spry and productive 80-year-old author astonishing? This recognition occurs amid a general consensus among even his admirers that Ashbery鈥檚 poetry is 鈥渄ifficult鈥� 鈥� baroquely complicated and obscure.
Poetry has always been a tough sell in the marketplace, except for those poets classified as 鈥渁ccessible.鈥�
The thought of an intensely abstruse poet getting all of this attention and a loyal readership is mind-boggling.
But Ashbery has always rejected charges that his poetry is mysteriously elusive 鈥� as does this reviewer.
鈥淒espite what everyone said, I always thought that there was something simple and penetrable in my poetry, screaming to be let out,鈥� Ashbery remarked to a London newspaper interviewer.
For proof, consider the opening of 鈥淭he Instruction Manual鈥� from Ashbery鈥檚 1956 collection, 鈥淪ome Trees鈥�:
As I sit looking out of the window of the building
I wish I did not have to write the instruction manual on the
Uses of a new metal.
I look down into the street and see people, each walking with
An inner peace,
And envy them 鈥� they are so far away from me!
And this understandable distraction from a menial task leads to:
And, as my way is, I began to dream, resting my elbows on
the desk and leaning out the window a little,
Of dim Guadalajara! City of rose-colored flowers!
I鈥檓 quoting this early poem at length because Ashbery has rarely deviated in purpose from his first works. The poem鈥檚 subject is the poet鈥檚 imaginative reverie, moving from the most mundane and prosaic circumstances to flights of lyrical poetic imagination that make the mundane enticingly exotic.
Twenty-three years later in his collection 鈥淎s We Know,鈥� Ashbery still invites his readers to join him in an imaginative odyssey transforming the daily grind into a daily dream-like reality:
But it is the same thing we are all seeing,
Our world. Go after it,
Go get it boy, says the man holding the stick.
Eat, says the hunger, and we plunge blindly in again....
Unlike poetry that comments on life鈥檚 absurdities with bemusement (Billy Collins) or gazes upon nature as a mirror of human nature (Mary Oliver), Ashbery鈥檚 work takes as its subject the way that poetic imagination constructs our daily sense of meaningful reality despite the world鈥檚 鈥済reat blooming, buzzing confusion鈥� (to quote William James).
What seems obscure in Ashbery鈥檚 poetry is the way he allows himself 鈥� and encourages his readers 鈥� to run the rapids of his capacious, fantastic, stream-of-consciousness style, which is full of unexpected shifts (not unlike the unpredictable twists and turns of our everyday lives).
Once any reader is willing 鈥渢o go along for the ride鈥� 鈥� to follow Ashbery鈥檚 meandering pathways of thought 鈥� reading his work becomes an entertaining, tragicomic, imaginative experience.
Ashbery seems to challenge us: How much can we mine our daily routines for fantastic imagery that can be animated, even as the view from a New York office building into a street becomes (in imagination) the unfolding of a Mexican street festival?
Reading Ashbery involves the ability to make sudden shifts between slangy and literary language, between rational analysis and irrational intuition, and to fuse seemingly unrelated images from paintings, film, and daily life. His poems seem to narrate stories 鈥� but they are stories constantly interrupted by paradoxes and contradictions, all part of a storytelling sensibility that loves unsolved and unsolvable mysteries.
Call this volume of Ashbery鈥檚 work a training guide for imaginative calisthenics.
Norman Weinstein is a contributor to the Monitor鈥檚 Arts and Culture section.
