Notes from the Air: Selected Later Poems

I think of Ashbery and then muse on Harold Bloom's appreciation for the gentleman's soul. Ashbery is such a very fine poet and should be read and re-read. His understanding of the confusions and the dizziness of modernity is a sorting out of possibilities of how to function in our world. A deeply realized and meditative poet.

o.k.

Ashbery is a genius of a poet. His poems are original and allegorical. I never tried to find "meanings" in his poems, but just enjoyed his magic words and flow of moods. The world reflected in his seemingly random images is so real, real America.

Condition of book as advertised. Prompt delivery.

I ordered this for a class and it was delivered very quickly. It was also in excellent condition.

Sorry. Ashbery is enormously respected. He has been showered with awards and grants. He can boast the ultimate badge of accessibility, appearances on Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac. He has even been cited, along with Wallace Stevens, by all of my most respected poet friends as a touchstone of 20th century poetics. I decided that if, I just stuck to it long enough, I would get it--I would have to get it. But 100 pages into the book, I had to run up the white flag. He's obviously extremely intelligent which, I guess, makes me a complete dolt. The titles don't make sense to me. The interior narrative of each poem doesn't make sense to me. And there seems to me to be very little modulation in the tone and intent of the poems, the sort of thing that makes you wade through an author's philosophical poems or the more formally knotty poems with the assurance that they are also master of more direct, more communicative forms. I always had the feeling that Ashbery was talking to someone behind me, that he never made eye contact. The problem was that, besides him, I was the only other person in the room. I'll have to try again later. Sometimes it's just a matter of timing.

John Ashbery grows ever more playful as time wears on, yet his playfulness gives the reader a whiff of something truly sublime. Many theories have been proposed on how Ashbery writes his poetry and what, exactly, he's up to.Personally, I've given up trying to understand it rationally, as a series of ideas, or even aesthetically, as art. I think he simply channels his poetry from another dimension. I think it must be a phonetic transcription of an alien tongue. My theory explains everything except, of course, those moments when he's just making fun. Oh, and the poems where he goes off half-cocked in a brazen attempt to write the worst poem ever, with clunky rhyme-schemes and ridiculous cliches, but it brings tears to your eyes because through it all it is just the most moving poem you've ever read. Because all of our stupid human cliches are elevated and transformed in some kind of superlative alchemy only John can enact. My theory of extra-dimensional channeling does not explain those poems very well, either.'Notes from the Air' is a superb selection of Ashbery's later works. I recommend it highly for Ashbery fans and the newly Ashbery-brave alike. I also want to mention that I feel nothing but solidarity with those reviewers who say they just don't get it. I don't get it either. I just let it wash over me and through me. I read Ashbery every morning as my religious observance. I can't imagine what it's doing to my brain...J Jennifer Matthewsauthor of "Radically Condensed Instructions for Being Just as You Are"

This selection contains April Galleons, Flow Chart, Hotel Lautremont, And the Stars Are Shining, Can You Hear, Bird, Wakefulness, Girls on the Run, Your Name Here, Chinese Whispers, and Where Shall I Wander. If you are a casual reader of Ashbery, this is perfect for you because it keeps you from rummaging through several collections to find a handful of great poems. For instance, Flow Chart is a fantastic long poem, but for this Selected, it is stripped down to only section Five (out of six). I can't complain too much about what was left out either. There are a few poems here and there but overall these are truly the strongest of his latter oeuvre. If you are a serious reader of Ashbery, then don't expect too much. There isn't an introduction, which i thought was a bummer, and the great poem "Heavenly Days" from Chinese Whispers isn't in here. Also I found the deckle-edge to be a hindrance to easily thumbing through the pages. It's a little too precious. What may be the most interesting part of the book for JA fans is to compare your selection with his selections. I find this as an interesting gauge to what the author aesthetically prefers, at least at the time of the selection.