|
| Self-portrait watercolor painting by A. R. Ammons, dated 1977. Image courtesy Joyner Library Digital Collections, East Carolina University. (Read the Terrain.org interview here.) |
POETICS
by A. R. Ammons
I look for the way
things will turn
out spiralling from a center,
the shape
thing will take to come forth in
so that the birch tree white
touched black at brnches
wil stand out
wind-glittering
totally its apparent self:
I look for the forms
things want to come as
from what black wells of possibility,
how a thing will unfold:
not the shape on paper—though
that, too—but the
uninterfering means on paper:
not so much looking for the shape
as being available
to any shape that may be
summoning itself
through me
from the self not mine but ours.
Joseph Hutchison, Colorado Poet Laureate 2014-2019, has published 20 collections of poems and edited or co-edited three poetry anthologies. He currently directs two master’s-level programs for University College at the University of Denver: Professional Creative Writing and Arts & Culture Management. Joe lives with his wife, Melody Madonna, in the mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, the city where he was born. 
Terrific interview ….<br />Ammons: Procedure could come to be the essential narrative, you see.<br /><br />PF: That’s a very contemporary value.<br /><br />Ammons: Then the narrative would take on whatever mystifications and myths that would seem organically proper to it.<br /><br />and the before the after-words : SPHERE<br /><br />gonna seek out his watercolors ….<br /><br />there is
I don't love everything Ammons wrote, but I love the way he went at writing. If you read the wonderful interview linked under his self-portrait, you'll see how great ambition with great humility (call it realism) were united in his character. Since we have banished authors, or at least their intentions, it's old-fashioned to say that I admire his character. He is number three on my
Joseph,<br /><br />this is fabulous!Elegant & spiralling verses that literally take 'shape' as you read. Love "uninterfering means on paper" line.<br /><br />Will add Ammons to my Amazon list.