Saturday, September 3, 2022

SOMETHING CLOSE TO MUSIC `

 




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)