The Complete Poems of A R Ammons, Volume 2

by A. R. Ammons

A colleague dies and is cremated, 845

  A construed entity too, 394

  A day without rain is like, 189

  A downpour, thunder-sudden and quit, rattled, 385

  A feeling of transparency like freedom, 391

  a flock of, 144

  a hip pain, a swollen gum, eyes that stick dry, 621

  A leaf picked, 35

  A leaf, loose, 839

  a light catches somewhere, finds human, 134

  A little, 403

  A little shower, 323

  a mockingbird sings to a whole, 139

  a pain in the knee or hipjoint or warps and, 240

  a poet hands me his poem and says, 99

  A pollen, 189

  A shaded branch will through etiolation stretch, even though it has, 325

  A sheer loops in and berries bead, 333

  A sheet of shale chips, 149

  A single, 149

  A small boulder washed or, 150

  A small moon nearly melted in the almost-morning, 718

  A snatch of crabgrass broken through a crack in the blacktop, 423

  A starving man dreams of more than enough, 151

  a stone sinks in soil like, 140

  A strong southwester, 8

  A system of necessity much elaborated, 846

  A train rumbles through the valley before day, 384

  a waste of words, a flattened-down, smoothed-, 267

  A whirlwind held still, 68

  A wretchedness will come with an improvement, like as not, 421

  A young woman, 405

  Actuality surges, 393

  after bridge work, so many abutments, crowns, 879

  After fall, winds, 146

  After rain I, 35

  After Saturday’s all day pouring rain, 854

  After thaws, 406

  After the inch-deep, 70

  After the long snow, 219

  Airs acquire recency, youth’s, 857

  all my life I thought a swig was a little bit, 648

  All my, 678

  All things that live die but even, 324

  All well and good for autonomy that it find, 695

  an early June morning in early June, we, having, 263

  Another day promised for forty, 147

  Anxiety clears meat chunks out of the stew, carrots, takes, 324

  Apostasy is such, if you doubt on, 219

  Appearances, undwellings, are shunted, 384

  Are the warblers drifting, 148

  Arriving takes, 404

  Art’s the, 218

  As glimmer goes, 70

  As I grow older, 17

  as if the name were not, 139

  As the snow, 151

  at a roadstand, in Dryden, or just outside, 644

  at dusk rabbits settle, 133

  At the extreme, 422

  battalions of leaves routed by the, 559

  Black, red, gold, green-speckled leaves, 383

  Bliss is the, 59

  Boulders high-lying, 420

  breaking up the hang up hanging, 566

  Brought in before the stone, 788

  Bubblers and peppers in the frail green woods!, 787

  But for an observed phenomenon, 789

  But what giving is to be expected from someone, 760

  but why put a stone there, 137

  By the boulder cluster the wind, 73

  Can nature form a rule ruling nature, 326

  can one be powerful and not invoke nightmares, 665

  can you make nothing interesting, 548

  cauliflowers are either real or, 102

  Chimney-top, aerial- or cherry-tree-top, 420

  clamp the c (c-clamp?) of clog on log, it’s a, 608

  consciousness is a kind of planet, inscribed, 624

  considering mutability and muck, 106

  Considering the show, some prize-winning, 5

  Continually is continuously, 190

  Creepy little creepers are insinuatingly, 220

  culture, hardened to shellac’s empty, 132

  Curious (or not at all) that now, 370

  Death, unduly undoing, 75

  Death is very common but not, 322

  December 30th and already the sun setting, 756

  dew shatters into rivulets on crunched cellophane, 236

  Dew turns, 36

  Did wind and wave design the albatross’s wing, 885

  do things close up or close down, 487

  Does he know enough to know what it’s like, 369

  don’t go on about it: put your mind, 484

  Don’t stop or the past will catch up with you, 755

  don’t think we don’t, 122

  Don’t you think poetry should be succinct, 767

  Douglas Worth, 812

  Drag in the diseased and afflicted, 152

  Dress up a charlatan like a lord, and who is, 761

  Driving when, 864

  During my glorious, 17

  dust’s shape in air, 138

  Eat anything: but hardly any: calories are, 688

  Even the great sea turns, 796

  Every day, I’m a foolish, 153

  every now and then I drop a bead of, 554

  Every now and then when I’m writing poetry I, 741

  Every year the hydrangea grows so, 369

  everyone watches the world end once, 124

  Eyes shined, 218

  Fall fell: so that’s it for the leaf poetry, 713

  Fall’s leaves are redder than, 18

  Fate is a reading on what-is, merely, 857

  Feet burl up (knobs, 423

  Fellow down the street, 372

  Foolish of course to spend, 73

  fracture the mirror and don’t ask me, 516

  Frail houses for quake zones every time, 851

  From the boardwalk looked down into the sun, 777

  from the multiplicities of underbrush, 775

  From, 36

  Fuzzy baby-spider ball, 13

  garbage has to be the poem of our time because, 224

  Generalization scans the contours of terrain, 154

  Genghis Kong, 677

  Glassy rain on the roads, 418

  Glenn (inventively—and wittily, as is his, 656

  Glittery river, I said, 157

  Gosh! Imagine! How did it happen? I am, 865

  Guided by, 218

  hang on—oh, hang on—to our frailty, oh, 597

  Harassed with inquiry, I, 417

  Harry Caplan’s not around anymore: that’s, 856

  have I put my input in: if not, where, 585

  Have you considered how inconsequential we all, 874

  He sat down and, 154

  hear me, O Lord, from the height of, 471

  heaven can be as purified as your, 112

  Heavy rains reshuffled the brook’s, 851

  Hiawathum say, 781

  High wind yesterday, 218

  Hilarity and sour scorn typify my reactions to, 711

  hope until there is no hope is hardly hope but being, 2

  Hornets nesting under the weatherboarding, 190

  Houdini died, 404

  how big is a drop of water: how much, 502

  how dangerous a catchy (or wisdomy) phrase, 650

  How do you account for things: take night, 738

  How I came to, 41

  How little I have really cared about nature: I always, 18

  how snow can cling, interpenetrant with the needles, to, 3

  How sweetly now like a boy I dawdle by ditches, 737

  how to exclude the central, 104

  How usage changes usage: with so many people, 874

  how wonderful to be able to write, 518

  I almost step on, 74

  I always wanted (when I was a boy—and even, 731

  I am living without you because, 155

  I am so ill-stanchioned myself, you, 512

  I asked C.A. what she thought about, no, what, 646

  I can see alm
ost, 416

  I can tell by, 156

  I confess my confessions never concern the, 600

  I didn’t look for what I couldn’t have borne to find, 415

  I don’t actually like the smell of pricks, I, 625

  I don’t amount to a thing, I said to the mountain, 75

  I don’t care if I don’t tell the truth, 125

  I don’t care what becomes of me now, I’m, 649

  I don’t know how big I’ll be tomorrow, you, 740

  I don’t know who you think you are, I said to, 935

  I don’t take brooks seriously, 158

  I don’t think things go round and, 495

  I don’t understand why the stream, 414

  I don’t, 213

  I feel it is so necessary to get, 530

  I feel the brook as it were, 19

  I found vision and it, 21

  I go to nature not because, 110

  I guess anything gets old: being rich, yep, 715

  I guess it’s because of the downward, 543

  I guess old men aren’t really good for nothing, 691

  I have a life that did not become, 14

  I have let all my balloons aloose, 21

  I have nowhere, 214

  I hope I will go through, 66

  I just can’t buy the bi- words: bye, bye to, 668

  I just had the funniest thought: it’s the, 703

  I keep proving I’m not god’s gift to, 470

  I know most people like to stay, 522

  I know that splendor’s your, 161

  I laid out my finest spool cloth, silkier, 889

  I learn from the lake, 191

  I like nature poetry, 135

  I like the ridge, it rolls my fixed ocean, 105

  I like, as I have said before, 115

  I mentioned trimming, 215

  I need to get a picture of what’s, 500

  I never got on good, 192

  I once would have said my sister Vida but now, 734

  I place my be down, 163

  I pull dead shafts, 212

  I put down, 193

  I put my head, 373

  I round the bend, 811

  I said to the brook stones, 163

  I said to, 676

  I said, I don’t want to be older, but it’s older, 941

  I saw a headless mummy out walking at dusk, 407

  I see the eye-level silver shine of, 531

  I stoop to slip a long, 381

  I struggle on in this pointless war, 492

  I suppose we must act as if—, 367

  I take myself too seriously, 796

  I take myself, in, 12

  I tangled with, 38

  I tell my poor pitiful graduating MFA poets to, 604

  I tell myself to think happy thoughts, 506

  I think I’d like to die in the woods, 165

  I think my, 77

  I took (drove my Toyota) a jug of my one-day’s, 882

  I waited for the robin, fluffing, 166

  I wake from a nap, 117

  I wake up around three or four these mornings, 81

  I want to do a painting: I want to slur a raw, 729

  I was made for another world, this, 408

  I was reading in the World BookWORLD BOOK about A. E., 745

  I was this, 120

  I went back, 38

  I went out into the cancellations of the wind, 23

  I will not have, 82

  I would as soon believe, 167

  I wouldn’t give up a hair of, 110

  Ice nearly meeting in the middle, 157

  I’d rather, 213

  I’d up, 214

  Ideas go, 212

  if Homer can nod, I can have, 480

  if I don’t know what it is it could, 562

  if I say I did it, did I do it or, 571

  if love is fine, 143

  if nature could speak, 99

  If no material and no resort, 20

  If no one sends you, 67

  If not ready to, 159

  If one can’t be, 413

  If out in, 390

  if results tell the story, mankind should, 649

  If something is too, 37

  if the tombstones were, 144

  If the universe is spilling one, 160

  if the world were not commonly perceived to be, 634

  If to my nuzzlings &, 76

  If you don’t go the way, 677

  if you miss life and get old, there’s, 508

  If you walk back, 190

  if you’re constipated don’t rape yourself, 661

  If you’re, 214

  If you’ve, 412

  I’ll keep the brook watched, 66

  I’ll never forget the day this beautiful woman, 875

  I’m (at least, provisionally) willing, 934

  I’m glad I don’t have fifty years, 527

  I’m just an old man in a de-gilded (gelded?) cage: a, 708

  I’m largely a big joke: if somebody else, 696

  I’m on drugs, now: this is the way people on, 706

  I’m over and done with: disengaged, I’m up, 719

  I’m so bottled, 782

  I’m split but not, 122

  I’m tired of looking at this old siding, 412

  I’m to go see you tonight, 191

  I’m walking home from, what, 29

  I’m walking with a friend, 411

  I’ve been around, 79

  I’ve been married, 215

  I’ve had all the apples out of my, 106

  I’ve hidden my desire over the wall under, 380

  I’ve lost my ambition to be somebody, 80

  I’ve pressed so, 403

  Immediacy’s stone, 191

  In a time of big cars, a small car raises eyebrows, 410

  In knee boots men work at the street grilles, 694

  In late August scarlet, 37

  In moderate calm one, 840

  In spring the high twig tip, 162

  In spring, 212

  In the bleak land of foreverness no, 26

  In the geological rock garden, 192

  in the middle of the piddle there’s a puddle, 663

  in the small walks & chasms, 125

  In the storm window’s upper left, 22

  In the time that, 824

  in this life if you scramble into a high, 569

  in time all the stories become the same story, 637

  in your end is my beginning, I repeat; also, 258

  is it all going to be like this: you wake up, 244

  Is it possible my wife had heard in the next, 938

  Islands dry out enlarging, 211

  Isn’t it time to let things be, 77

  It boom-a-loomed, 164

  it breaks the heart, 136

  it doesn’t matter to me if issues, 116

  It doesn’t, 193

  It drags on a way and, beaten down, dies, 815

  It is as far inward as outward, 770

  it is hilarious how sad the world is: I mean, 617

  It is one thing to be nobody, but to be nobody, 730

  it is so much easier to become known by doing, 603

  it scares me to think that being, 514

  It snowed, 194

  It takes so long to set up the terminological landscape, 79

  It used to flick up so often, I called it, 697

  It was so windy, 50

  it’s a brisk, bright fall day and, 580

  It’s a clear case with rivers—, 166

  It’s a clear case with rivers: they, 374

  it’s bad news in the OK corral when the, 660

  It’s hard, 215

  It’s not going to be again the way it was, 866

  It’s not much of a fall with, 32

  It’s probably not true that birds of most rapid wingbeat stand stillest, 858

  it’s rude to blurt the unexpected out, 922

  it’s so cold this morning: there’s, 504

  It’s so
cold, 211

  It’s so far to the brook the squirrel, 22

  It’s so hard to tell what’s missing: you can’t, 372

  It’s so still, 38

  Just as the lesser gods, local, 168

  knowledge, perception, this action, 100

  Last night’s, 194

  Last night the, 39

  last night, the wind clunked, 98

  last year we got this strawberry, 113

  lawsey-dawsey, it’s the sixth, 510

  Leaves evidentiary, branches, 375

  led by words into a multiplicity of contact, word to thing, 1

  Led off the arena with a noose around my neck, 869

  Lee of wind-skinned rises, 11

  Let me be honest with you, 782

  Let the rousers through: I held on and, 374

  life comes under no other, 331

  life has left me beaten up and beat, 563

  Limber and fluttery as lombardies, 818

  Lips twisted with thirst, 83

  Lit clouds diffuse tree, 39

  little showers yesterday evening, quiet, 133

  Little time left to work with, 331

  live unknown and when you go little knowledge, 638

  logs, limbs, and branches lying by, 539

  Looks like, the rain run off, the brook’s, 85

  Lord, I wish I were in Hallsboro, over by the tracks, 862

  Love can make a sucker of you: it can, 675

  Love Poem, 627

  Love surgent, equipped with the direction, 330

  Make lean the vowels of my lips, 771

  May happiness, 212

  May we tinker with nature, define &, 365

  Mercy’s so slight it’s like, 39

  Midnight moonlight chisels the eaves’ icicles blue, 169

  Migrating along (butterfly-like, 365

  minutiae is a fussy word, 130

  Miscalculation gives calculation another turn, 890

  missed by every movement, exile of, 560

  Momentous and trivial, I, 65

  money, enhancing the fluency of negotiation, 494

  Most creatures, 674

  My attention is a wild, 85

  My begonia blossoms are, 170

  My big round yew, 40

  My constructions aim so far, 339

  My endorsing song blocks out, 40

  My father did not, 87

  My father said the meat came off the insides of his father’s hands, 887

  My father said, 679

  my father-in-heaven is my father; my father is, 630

  my hands that in their motions used to, 525

  My hands, he said, 802

  My hanging strawberry, 40

  My little way, 171

  my miseries, no worse than most people’s, 919

  My nature singing in me is your nature singing, 86

  My path’s so, 172

  My poems, if poems, 328

  My pretty cousin, the hairdresser, 841

  My wife says that the two guys on TV say that, 687

  Nailing down the cause of anything is not easy, 727

  nature poetry, nature poetry, 653