The Complete Poems of A. R. Ammons: Volume 1 1955-1977

1072 Pages·2017·2.31 MB·English

by  A.R. Ammons

T C P
HE OMPLETE OEMS OF
A. R. A
MMONS
VOLUME 1
1955–1977
Edited by Robert M. West
Introduction by Helen Vendler
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CONTENTS
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION by Helen Vendler
Finishing Up
O D (1955)
MMATEUM WITH OXOLOGY
So I Said I Am Ezra
The Sap Is Gone Out of the Trees
In Strasbourg in 1349
I Broke a Sheaf of Light
Some Months Ago
I Went Out to the Sun
At Dawn in 1098
The Whaleboat Struck
Turning a Moment to Say So Long
Turning
Dying in a Mirthful Place
When Rahman Rides
With Ropes of Hemp
My Dice Are Crystal
Having Been Interstellar
Coming to Sumer
I Assume the World Is Curious About Me
I Struck a Diminished Seventh
Gilgamesh Was Very Lascivious
When I Set Fire to the Reed Patch
The Grass Miracles
I Came in a Dark Woods Upon
A Treeful of Cleavage Flared Branching
[Behind the I]
One Composing
In the Wind My Rescue Is
[I should have stayed longer idle]
A Crippled Angel
Dropping Eyelids Among the Aerial Ash
I Came Upon a Plateau
Doxology
E S L (1964)
XPRESSIONS OF EA EVEL
Raft
Hymn (“I know if I find you I will have to leave the earth . . .”)
Risks and Possibilities
Terrain
Nelly Myers
Bridge
Requiem
Guide
Expressions of Sea Level
Unsaid
Mechanism
Batsto
Mansion
Close-Up
Mountain Liar
Prospecting
Jersey Cedars
Hardweed Path Going
Bourn
Grassy Sound
Silver
Concentrations
River
Motion for Motion
Identity
What This Mode of Motion Said
Still
The Golden Mean
Nucleus
C I (1965)
ORSONS NLET
Visit
Moment
Winter Scene
Corsons Inlet
Dunes
Street Song
Lines
Coon Song
Portrait
Jungle Knot
Dark Song
Resort
Upright
Catalyst
Loss
World
Butterflyweed
Configurations
Glass
Morning Glory
The Strait
Spindle
The Yucca Moth
Anxiety
Four Motions for the Pea Vines
Hymn II (“So when the year had come full round . . .”)
Hymn III (“In the hour of extreme // importance . . .”)
Open
Epiphany
Prodigal
Motion
The Misfit
The Watch
Libation
The Wide Land
Thaw
Whose Timeless Reach
Ritual for Eating the World
Driving Through
March Song
Gravelly Run
T T Y (1965)
APE FOR THE URN OF THE EAR
6 Dec: (“today I decided to write a long thin poem . . .”)
7 Dec: (“today / I feel a bit different . . .”)
8 Dec: (“the way I could tell / today / that yesterday is dead . . .”)
9 Dec: (“sunny again: // last night a plane . . .”)
10 Dec: (“sunshine & shade / alternate at 32 . . .”)
11 Dec: (“they changed the forecast / today . . .”)
12 Dec: (“clouds came in soon after / dark last night . . .”)
13 Dec: (“my book came today, Friday / the 13th . . .”)
14 Dec: (“today came in an opposite way / of rain turning into snow . . .”)
15 Dec: (“my poem went for a ride / today . . .”)
16 Dec: (“first I heard on the radio this morning it was / 19 degrees . . .”)
17 Dec: (“Sisyphus / struggling with his immortal / rock . . .”)
18 Dec: (“today / broke as if under water . . .”)
19 Dec: (“this ole world could be / one . . .”)
20 Dec: (“today is cold: hit / ten last night: and it not winter yet . . .”)
21 Dec: (“the jay was out before sunrise wheeling & dealing . . .”)
22 Dec: (“we lost our mule Kate in the fall to a chattel mortgage . . .”)
23 Dec: (“I was thinking when I woke / up . . .”)
26 Dec: (“today is bright, warm . . .”)
27 Dec: (“today is / cloudy / in several ways . . .”)
28 Dec: (“today / is dim / again . . .”)
30 Dec: (“today is 19 & / sunny . . .”)
31 Dec: (“today the dry burn in my nose of a cold coming on . . .”)
1 Jan: (“raining: at the borderline & promise / of snow . . .”)
2 Jan: (“today / feels above freezing & is / sunshiny . . .”)
3 Jan: (“today is warm & sunny: / may go up to 50 . . .”)
4 Jan: (“3:20 pm: today is near- / ly shot aready . . .”)
5 Jan: (“today is sunny & it may / be warm again . . .”)
6 Jan: (“today is splennid again . . .”)
7 Jan: (“today is rainy . . .”)
8 Jan: (“today is sunny & warming . . .”)
9 Jan: (“today ben / der clouds . . .”)
10 Jan: (“today is windy as March / & sunny . . .”)
N P (1966)
ORTHFIELD OEMS
Kind
Height
Joshua Tree
Reflective
Landscape with Figures
The Constant
Contingency
One:Many
Halfway
Interference
Saliences
Trap
The Foot-Washing
Recovery
Two Motions
Composing
Ithaca, N.Y.
Consignee
February Beach
Self-Portrait
Passage
Peak
Zone
Muse
Sitting Down, Looking Up
Belief
Song
Orientale
Mays Landing
Sphere
First Carolina Said-Song
Second Carolina Said-Song
Discoverer
A Symmetry of Thought
Holding On
Uh, Philosophy
The Numbers
Empty
Unbroken
Fall
The Wind Coming Down From
Interval
Way to Go
U (1970)
PLANDS
Snow Log
Upland
Periphery
Clarity
Classic
Conserving the Magnitude of Uselessness
If Anything Will Level with You Water Will
The Unifying Principle
Runoff
Transaction
Then One
Further On
Hope’s Okay
Life in the Boondocks
Spiel
Guitar Recitativos
Laser
Virtu
Choice
Body Politic
Apologia pro Vita Sua
Offset
Mountain Talk
Impulse