American poet (1927- )
In the increasingly convincing darkness
The words become palpable, like a fruit
That is too beautiful to eat.
JOHN ASHBERY
Houseboat Poems
And the truth is cold, as a giant's knee
Will seem cold.
JOHN ASHBERY
"A Last World"
In the beginning there are those who don't quite fit in
But are somehow okay. And then some morning
There are places that suddenly seem wonderful:
Weather and water seem wonderful,
And the peaceful night sky that arrives
In time to protect us, like a sword
Cutting the blue cloak of a prince.
JOHN ASHBERY
"A Snowball in Hell", April Galleons
The promise of learning is a delusion.... Tomorrow would alter the sense of what had already been learned, that the learning process is extended in this way, so that from this standpoint none of us ever graduates from college, for time is an emulsion, and probably thinking not to grow up is the brightest kind of maturity for us, right now at any rate.
JOHN ASHBERY
The Double Dream of Spring
All things seem mention of themselves
And the names which stem from them branch out to other referents.
Hugely, spring exists again.
JOHN ASHBERY
"Grand Galop"
Death is a new office building filled with modern furniture,
A wise thing, but which has no purpose for us.
JOHN ASHBERY
"A Last World"
Much that is beautiful must be discarded
So that we may resemble a taller
Impression of ourselves.
JOHN ASHBERY
"Illustration"
After you've lived in Paris for a while, you don't want to live anywhere, including Paris.
JOHN ASHBERY
Selected Prose
There is the view that poetry should improve your life. I think people confuse it with the Salvation Army.
JOHN ASHBERY
International Herald Tribune, Oct. 2, 1989
The mind
Is so hospitable, taking in everything
Like boarders, and you don't see until
It's all over how little there was to learn
Once the stench of knowledge has dissipated.
JOHN ASHBERY
"Houseboat Days"
And hiding from darkness in barns
They can be grownups now
And the murderer's ash tray is more easily--
The lake a lilac cube.
JOHN ASHBERY
"They Dream Only of America", The Tennis Court Oath: A Book of Poems
The first year was like icing. Then the cake started to show through.
JOHN ASHBERY
"More Pleasant Adventures"
What is the past, what is it all for? A mental sandwich?
JOHN ASHBERY
"37 Haiku"
I am often asked why I write, and I don't know really--I just want to.
JOHN ASHBERY
interview, The Paris Review, winter 1983
Heh? Eh? Our youth is dead.
From the minute we discover it with eyes closed
Advancing into mountain light.
Ouch.
JOHN ASHBERY
"Our Youth Is Dead", The Tennis Court Oath: A Book of Poems
Paris is "the city," isn't it, and I am a lover of cities. It can be experienced much more pleasantly and conveniently than any other city I know. It's so easy to get around on the metro, and so interesting when you get there--each arrondissement is like a separate province, with its own capital and customs and even costumes.
JOHN ASHBERY
interview, The Paris Review, winter 1983
Once a happy old man
One can never change the core of things, and light burns you the harder for it.
JOHN ASHBERY
"A Last World"
And so we turn the page over
To think of starting. This is all there is.
JOHN ASHBERY
"Frontispiece"
The facts of history have been too well rehearsed.
JOHN ASHBERY
"The System", Three Poems
We might realize that the present moment may be one of an eternal or sempiternal series of moments, all of which will resemble it because, in some ways, they are the present, and won't in other ways, because the present will be the past by that time.
JOHN ASHBERY
interview, The Paris Review, winter 1983