No Longer Very Clear
It is true that I can no longer remember very well
the time when we first began to know each other.
However, I do remember very well
the first time we met. You walked in sunlight,
holding a daisy. You said, "Children made unreliable witnesses."
Now, so long after that time,
I keep the spirit of it throbbing still.
The ideas are still the same, and they expand
to fill vast, antique cubes.
My daughter was reading one just the other day.
She said, " How like pellucid statues, Daddy. Or like a. . .
an engine."
In this house of blues the cold creeps stealthily upon us.
I do not dare to do what I fantasize doing.
With time the blue congeals into roomlike purple
that takes the shape of alcoves, landings. . .
Everything is like something else.
I should have waited before I learned this.
_________________________
Something Close to Music
John Ashbery
David Zwirner Books
2022
___________________________________________
If you can't stand Ashbery's work
this is just the book for you —
impeccable poems (meaning: inventive,
crisp, word-saturated) diced with
square smart art criticism,
(there isn't a tired page)
and the price of this
handsome size book
is also ideal.
Take a bow
Jeffrey Lependorf.
(editor)
