The Complete Poems of A R Ammons, Volume 1

by A. R. Ammons

  then easy as pie you will be

  able to make lots of tomatoes

  4665and I think this girl got the

  point that a Platonic form is one

  thing and a piece of ass

  something else

  and nobody with that kind of

  4670awareness will stay puzzled

  long or talk to teachers

  queer for tomatoes

  enough horse do for today

  ltho prhps ct shrt

  The Temperature Rose 15 Degrees over

  4675The temperature rose 15 degrees over

  the sunless, unaided

  night: clouds like freight

  cars packed the heat in

  here and like tarpaulins

  4680held it in place: high

  winds today will change the

  pacings and placings, only to add heat

  to heat: high

  winds shake out from scruffy

  4685snow-disorganized bushes

  crosslimbs, tangles, and

  dead twigs and comb every

  long branch out into its

  separate space and possibility,

  4690a ruffling and swaying

  that brings cleansed motions

  to high alignment!

  rhythm is the spreading out

  of sense so that curvatures

  4695of intonation, gestures of

  emphasis, clusters of

  relationship can find disposition

  and placement within the

  enclosing identity of the sense scope

  4700(as metrics eats

  away at motion

  it loses its identity

  and becomes like motion)

  metrics aside, though (and

  4705why not, though relevant) much

  of the power of motion resides

  in the reliability (see dict.)

  of the repetition (al fine

  senza repetizione): at some point

  4710in the whole

  scope of an act

  of congress, encouraging

  trust, there ought to be a

  plateau, a plateau before the

  4715peak: it needn’t be a flat

  plateau: it can be building

  at an angle into buoyancy:

  but for this part of the act,

  a regular rhythm or a regular

  4720progression (generally

  accelerating) ought to be

  established as the highest

  feeling comes on stressful

  entering or unstressful

  4725withdrawing: but aside from

  the regularity of duration, timing,

  between stresses (c’est à

  decir, a poem or novel must

  achieve identifiable motion

  4730as the highest contour above

  its many motions): it follows

  from the reliability of these

  stresses and durations that

  the pleasures that lie ahead

  4735are available, can be reached,

  ought to be entertained:

  reliability gradually

  accelerated could then explode

  into huge releases of, umm,

  4740expression, into dissolving,

  stressless gliding, unwrinkled

  calm

  expression through issuecreelo o no

  is not too badcreelo o yes

  4745if clusters of plurality

  balance counterbalances:

  that way, all expressions

  are tolerable but

  meaningful change is slow,

  4750an undercurrent forming past

  calculation in accuracy:

  the unwilled will

  will the future

  more truly than the

  4755willed will:

  10:10 a.m.: it has cleared

  up sunny and warmed to the thirties:

  the snow’s not rushing into melt

  but clumps have damp edges: one thinks

  4760the buds and flower-clusters

  have swelled but actually one

  has only thought of spring

  and noticed the buds for the

  first time: they’ve been about

  4765so big all winter:

  prey bolts, whines

  but overtaken is pulled down,

  dignity of design

  forgotten in dust and the

  4770fastest heart beat, grace

  of motion

  broken down into dinner

  (have so many things to do that you

  rarely do them)

  4775//5 p.m.

  my first walk to the brook

  this year and though

  it was only 15 minutes

  including taking out the garbage

  4780it was exhaustingly delightful

  the brook by the way

  by the way ay ay

  is sassy

  up to roaring

  4785the water melt-muddy with

  road runoff (salt, ash, cinders,

  & gravel) and cutting gullies:

  good to see a streak of water oozing

  in caterpillar ripples across

  4790the dry highway and to notice

  farther up

  the forsythia thicket letting its

  holdings of groundsnow go

  I would love to get the poetry just

  4795the way it happens, the way it comes

  on, heavy and thick like

  a thunder tangle or empty as high

  blue, weaving, stalling,

  a little bit of all the

  4800progressions including the

  unstirring:

  hunthigh

  wildass

  on the walk a fart worked its

  4805way loose

  probing through like a variable

  long balloon seeking

  till

  wind to wind it broke free

  4810so generous & satisfying

  As for Fame I’ve Had It

  As for fame I’ve had it

  before I’ve

  had it: meanwhile,

  others grow vast on

  4815very little

  (but it has

  by wise men

  often been

  spoken: less is

  4820more or

  less more)

  while the more

  I give the fewer

  tangles of

  4825attention to me

  unwind

  I suppose I’ve

  worried too much

  about the outbreak

  4830of destructive

  clarification:

  when most folks

  are in such confusion

  any slight light

  4835falls into far illumination

  in darkness will we

  heed too much

  the twinkling of a tiny

  twinkler when on the

  4840mountain

  chasms, gulfs, ravines,

  ledges and weighty slides wait:

  to be made of steel!

  so bullets and aches and

  4845pains and sorrows

  the sorrows of knowing and

  not knowing and witnessing

  bing off you

  that would be so fine

  4850provided you did not

  remain stiff and

  uneducated

  meanwhile the day has been

  beautiful from sunlight binging

  4855right off the horizon

  through bright to now 3:15:

  not as warm as yesterday but

  warm enough, 40, 45:

  poetry has become an outing

  4860(outage), church social, a picnic of

  huggy self-embracing, small hopes

  and a tremendous capacity to bear

  up under daily disappointment,

  no mail, no state funds, no

  4865f
ed funds, no city or county

  funds, no scholarship or fellowship

  today, no

  subsidy on this issue, no

  programs for the public

  4870or public schools this week, no

  improvement at all, I’m sorry,

  we can’t offer you a

  reading engagement this year,

  no, not now:

  4875take up slack

  choose cheese

  When One Is a Child One Lives

  When one is a child one lives

  in helplessness, in terror

  of arbitrary force, and in the

  4880fear of death

  when one is young one lives

  in helplessness of the

  passions, in terror of the

  ultimate vulnerabilities, and

  4885in the fear of death, passion’s

  opposite

  when one is grown one lives

  in helplessness of the webs

  of demand and responsibility,

  4890in terror of failing, and

  in the fear of death, the temptation

  when one is old one lives

  in helplessness, in terror, and

  in the fear of death

  4895a windy, almost flashingly

  changeable morning, the

  clouds ripping across

  influxes of light, that moist

  blue in the clouds, temperature

  490050 but failing, the willow

  yellower, perhaps, than

  usual, or more noticeable

  against the rank clouds

  instability is a loss into

  4905motion but the best integrities

  move, the coming out

  of “sense” from sound

  progressions: the

  “flow” on the court to a swish:

  4910crows sit in the thicket

  hushed mainly in the noon

  cloudiness:

  when the great geese

  fly over

  4915the crows appear strange

  as if separated into their

  contemplations

  most anything, stopped, falls

  apart: motion

  4920is the world’s glue

  holding-together

  but time eventually underslips

  the whole thing

  it is so lovely, the world,

  4925so full of change and death

  how can we find ease

  in the uneasy

  stability and calm

  in the rushing

  4930where is our stay

  that is in a holding

  higher

  than motion’s formings

  here, we know a stillness that will

  4935not work, and, there, a

  stillness we can’t stir from:

  hold on to your self and your things

  as long as there is

  hope of holding: then swirl

  4940loose into the mercy of others, set

  your sights on having nothing,

  staying nowhere: rest home:

  who lets go needs not even

  the need to hold on

  4945he is free with nothing

  which is in to everything,

  these strange and comforting

  contradictions, emollients,

  ointments, and

  4950soothing sanctions for the lost:

  swashbuckling bushwhacker

  the weather cooled and calmed

  into 4 o’clock

  sunny, nice

  4955I look outbang bang

  the windowyr’re dead

  but the onlybrush your teeth

  thing comingand go to bed

  is another

  4960tooth out

  if I hadlanguage says

  more fight inwise and

  me theresobering things

  would be lessbut in

  4965runreal binds

  nobody reads

  I picked up lost wood undersores run

  the elm yesterday afternoonscabs

  limbs airy with light rotstay put

  4970bark expanding to separate

  speckled white with decay

  high winds trim the tree

  into the continence and

  security of calm

  4975frijolillo

  Cloud Strays Rounded Up

  Cloud strays rounded up

  in a windy direction before

  dawn, a hustled, rustled

  clearing

  4980as the stone buildings at the

  university get older

  life seems more and more

  like whitewater over an

  architectural rapids

  4985slope soak

  seeps (spews up)

  through a

  highway chuckhole

  late at

  4990night and

  freezing through

  early morning

  builds up ice

  which

  4995when dawn brings out

  the cars

  grinds fine

  under the tires

  and looks

  5000like a bucket

  of dumped

  gook

  a curiosity to pedestrians admiring

  the sunny morning

  5005newlyweds: honeyback guarantee

  can your father stuff it

  the Rangers can’t

  seem to do

  anything in their

  5010own end

  something outside the bedroom

  maybe a shutter

  burrs in gusts and

  another thing, an electrical

  5015attachment, squeaks at the

  corner of the house as if

  someone were squeezing

  a bird or turning over on a

  spring

  5020(at nigh on to three the wind

  has died down but the

  temperature has gone right on up to

  sixty)

  tulip leaves are up

  5025green spears of lilies show

  an inch of daffodil is

  up

  the hollyhock clump that was

  aleaf under snow

  5030having lost those leaves now

  to naked frost

  has unfolded held small leaves

  precaution freed from caution

  maybe the Lord troubles

  5035people’s knees so they

  will pray short and get on

  with what must be done

  //it’s getting late &

  we had a shower

  5040(enough to lay the salt

  and silt on snowroads):

  Bernie’s coming to dinner & Don

  couldn’t quite get the

  backboard up on the face of

  5045the garage and I have pulled

  out old spirea stalks and

  picked up sticks till I’m

  pooped nevertheless let’s see

  if we can approach the

  5050brushpile principle: now

  a brushpile is by nature a

  place to throw things

  but you must be careful

  when you throw armloads of

  5055this or that on the pile—

  some pieces will slide

  down and off the pile or you

  will dribble a stalk or so

  of something just before you

  5060get to the pile

  which is only to say that

  in normal usage

  you will start to blur the

  line between the brush pile

  5065and the periphery

  this should not be permitted

  because pretty soon you’d be

  kneedeep in junk before you

  could get to the pile with a

  5070load: right:

  principle: be sure to police

  the periphery of your fucking

  brus
hpile

  or you will wind up with

  5075nothing but a mess,

  an undifferentiated junkyard:

  is that what you want:

  do you want that:

  lines sometimes help the mind

  5080take steps from

  one thing to another

  possibly ascending steps

  to the tall place

  where nobody

  5085walks around

  leap year

  It’s Half an Hour Later Before

  It’s half an hour later before

  a spring shower

  gets all the way down

  5090to hemlock ground

  last night it rained easy

  all night till dawn the rain

  got white and

  the dawn world, stained this

  5095or that, came up white

  coming up on white

  they’s a limit, he said:

  she cracked up,

  mother nature’s response

  5100to male weaknessdomination

  and all morning up to now

  heavy stuff, white and sticky,

  right on the rain line,

  has been falling in a

  5105calmness no tree quivers

  winter trees aren’t good

  winnowers: nevertheless,

  fine branches snatch flakes

  and big branches take

  5110single ridges: the chaff

  hits the ground

  but the caught

  turns to lit melt beads

  that light up

  5115trees in a different light:

  march one andmarchone and

  in the clearin theclear

  thicket highchoiredthickethighchoired

  grackles grate squeak,gracklesgrate squeak,

  5120dissonant asdissonantas

  a music schoola musicschool

  not much verse today but we

  got the backboard & hoop up