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Things can harden meaningfully in the moment of indecision

John Ashbery

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John Ashbery
Age: 90 †
Born: 1927
Born: July 28
Died: 2017
Died: September 3
Journalist
Poet
University Teacher
Writer
Rochester
New York
G'on Ashberi
John Ashberry
Jonas Barry
Jon Asshuberī
John Lawrence Ashbery
John Ashbery
Moment
Moments
Things
Meaningfully
Harden
Indecision

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In the increasingly convincing darkness The words become palpable, like a fruit That is too beautiful to eat.
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Its a bit mad. Too bad, I mean, that getting to know each just for a fleeting second Must be replaced by unperfect knowledge of the featureless whole Like some pocket history of the world, so general As to constitute a sob or wail
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Somewhere someone is traveling furiously toward you, At incredible speed, traveling day and night.
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The soul establishes itself. But how far can it swim out through the eyes And still return safely to its nest?
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I listen to music a great deal. In a way, it's trying to express things that can't be expressed in words. That's something that interests me, too. Even though I use words to express myself, I am trying to, it seems to me, get beyond that.
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Reading is a pleasure, but to finish reading, to come to the blank space at the end, is also a pleasure.
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I'm heading for a clean-named place like Wisconsin, and mad as a jack-o'-lantern, will get there without help and nosy proclivities.
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Life is not at all what you might think it to be A simple tale where each thing has its history It's much more than its scuffle and anything goes Both evil and good, subject to the same laws.
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It is written in the Book of Usable Minutes That all things have their center in their dying.
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I don't look on poetry as closed works. I feel they're going on all the time in my head and I occasionally snip off a length.
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Imagine a painter crucified by his subject!
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I like poems you can tack all over with a hammer and there are no hollow places.
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