The Complete Poems of A R Ammons, Volume 1
Page 85
I looked for coins
along the street’s edge
on the way to
the eternal sea:
looked at the sea,
a deep summary,
and returned along
the street’s other edge,
looking for coins.
“Recording”: “Spring 75—Equinox.” First appeared in The New York Times, May 12, 1975.
“North Street”: Aug. 10, 1974. First appeared in Ocean City Sentinel-Ledger, Aug. 16, 1974.
“Reading”: June 20, 1975. First appeared in The Vineland Times Journal, June 26, 1975. The poem appears here as it was revised for RSP. In HR it appeared thus:
It is nice
after dinner
to walk down to
the beach
and see
that the biggest
thing on earth
is
relatively calm.
“One Thing and Another”: Mar. 31, 1975. First appeared in The Nickelodeon, a poetry broadsheet Ammons edited while in residence at Wake Forest University, no. 15 (Apr. 8, 1975). The poem appears here as it appeared in RSP. In HR it appeared thus:
It is one
thing
to know one
thing
and another
thing
to know another
thing.
“Self”: First appeared in The Sewanee Review, vol. 82, no. 4 (Fall 1974).
“For Doyle Fosso”: Nov. 13, 1974. Long an English professor at Wake Forest, Fosso taught the department’s course on Shakespeare. Among his publications are two books of poems, Parabola Rasa (1984) and Astralogos (1987).
“Generation Gap”: Apr. 22, 1968.
“Natives”: The poem appears here as it was revised for RSP, with “civilization” instead of “civilzation” in line 3 and “scalelike” instead of “scale-like” in line 5.
“Catch”: Appeared in Choice, no. 10 (1977).
“Lofty”: June 23, 1964. First appeared (as “For the Lofty”) in The New York Times, Jan. 25, 1965.
“Imaginary Number”: Nov. 28, 1977.
INDEX OF TITLES
Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.
“Account, The,” 531
“Admission,” 488
“After the Dissolve,” 902
“After Yesterday,” 442
“Alternatives,” 519
“America,” xlv
“Analysis Mines and Leaves to Heal,” 853
“Anxiety,” 120
“Apologia pro Vita Sua,” 417
“Appearances,” 733
“April,” 512
“Arc, The,” 810
“Arc Inside And Out, The,” 642
“Arm’s Length Renders One,” 970
“Ars Poetica,” 757
“As for Fame I’ve Had It,” 927
“At Dawn in 1098,” 8
“Attention,” 450
“Attenuations,” 763
“Auto Mobile,” 455
“Autumn Song,” 485
“Back Country,” 504
“Ballad,” 745
“Banking,” 481
“Batsto,” 57
“Bay Bank,” 510
“Bearing Mercy,” 525
“Bees Stopped,” 445
“[Behind the I],” 22
“Belief,” 377
“Blue Skies,” 1024
“Body Politic,” 417
“Bonus,” 731
“Bookish Bookseller,” xxvi, xxxii
Bosh and Flapdoodle, xxv, xxxii, xxxvi, xxxvii, xliv, xlv, xlvi, xlvii
“Bourn,” 67
“Breaks,” 514
“Bridge,” 45
Briefings: Poems Small and Easy, xxxvi, xxxvii, 441
“Briefings,” xliv
“Brooks & Other Notions,” 448
“But If the Way Will,” 856
“Butterflyweed,” 107
“Camels,” 1024
“Cardinal, Slanted Watershed, The,” 981
“Cascadilla Falls,” 425
“Catalyst,” 105
“Catch,” 1029
“Celestial,” 527
“Center,” 441
“Certainty,” 755
“Chaos Staggered Up the Hill,” 500
“Chasm,” 525
“Choice,” 416
“Christmas Eve,” 506
“Christmas Eve Morning,” 851
“Circles,” 458
“Circling,” 752
“City Limits, The,” 498
“Civics,” 456
“Clarity,” 398
“Classic,” 399
“Clearing,” 530
“Clearing the Dark Symbiosis,” 588
“Cleavage,” 567
“Close-Up,” 60
“Cloud Strays Rounded Up,” 932
“Cold Didn’t Keep the Stuff,” 883
Collected Poems 1951–1971, xxvi, xxxii, xxxvi, 499
“Come Prima,” 503
“Coming To,” 528
“Coming to Sumer,” 15
“Communication,” 508
“Composing,” 367
“Concentrations,” 70
“Concerning the Exclusions of the Object,” 491
“Configurations,” xxxix, 108
“Confirmers, The,” 487
“Conserving the Magnitude of Uselessness,” 400
“Considering the Variety,” 1009
“Consignee,” 369
“Constant, The,” 352
“Contingency,” 354
“Convergence,” 475
“Coon Song,” 97
“Correction,” 528
Corsons Inlet, xxxvi, xxxviii, 89
“Corsons Inlet,” 91
“Cougar,” 449
“Countering,” 483
“Course Discourse,” 758
“Coward,” 754
“Crevice,” 480
“Crippled Angel, A,” 26
“Crying Out,” 754
“Cunit,” 953
“Currencies,” 731
“Cut The Grass,” 489
“Dark Day, Warm and Windy,” 908
“Dark Song,” 102
“Dawn Clear,” 840
“Day,” 594
“6 DEC:,” 141
“7 DEC:,” 145
“8 DEC:,” 151
“9 DEC:,” 156
“10 DEC:,” 164
“11 DEC:,” 174
“12 DEC:,” 188
“13 DEC:,” 196
“14 DEC:,” 196
“15 DEC:,” 210
“16 DEC:,” 212
“17 DEC,” 216
“18 DEC:,” 224
“19 DEC,” 230
“20 DEC:,” 232
“21 DEC:,” 235
“22 DEC:,” 236
“23 DEC:,” 239
“26 DEC:,” 242
“27 DEC:,” 252
“28 DEC:,” 258
“30 DEC:,” 269
“31 DEC:,” 280
“Definitions,” 515
“Delaware Water Gap,” 593
“Delight,” 735
“Design,” 756
“Devising,” 521
“Discoverer,” 385
Diversifications, 724
“Dominion,” 467
“Double Exposure,” 730
“Doubling the Nerve,” 466
“Doxology,” 29
“Drip Drip,” 1000
“Driving Through,” 138
“Dropping Eyelids Among the Aerial Ash,” 27
“Drought,” 537
“Dull Lull,” 921
“Dunes,” 95
“Dung Ball, Round Graveyard,” 873
“Dying in a Mirthful Place,” 12
“Early Morning in Early April,” 486
“Early October,” 793
&nb
sp; “Early Woods,” 1025
“8:45 A.M.—Doorbell Rings: Wife,” 821
“80-Proof,” 760
“Elegy for a Jet Pilot,” 482
“Emerson,” 732
“Emplacement,” 522
“Empty,” 391
“Enough,” 1026
“Enterprise,” 1020
“Eolith,” 500
“Epiphany,” 128
“Equinox,” 538
“Essay On Poetics,” 540
“Eternal City, The,” 596
“Even,” 529
“Event,” 443
“Exotic,” 479
Expressions of Sea Level, xxvi, xxxv, xxxviii, 34
“Expressions of Sea Level,” 51
“Extremes and Moderations,” 574
“Eyesight,” 640
“Facing,” 751
“Fall,” 393
“Fall, The,” 511
“Fall Creek,” 510
“Famine,” 1029
“Father,” 460
“February Beach,” 370
“Figuring,” xliii, xliv
“Finishing Up,” xxv, xxxii, 1
“First Carolina Said-Song,” 382
“First Morning in a Few, The,” 866
“Fix,” 753
“Flaw, The,” 755
“Flock of My Days, A,” 942
“Foot-Washing, The,” 363
“For Doyle Fosso,” 1028
“Forecast for Today (Winter’s Firstday),” 844
“For Harold Bloom,” 645
“For Louise and Tom Gossett,” 1021
“Fortitude,” 1030
“41 Morning, Still Cloudy, A,” 910
“Four Motions for the Pea Vines,” 121
“Full,” 727
“Fundamental Constant,” 742
“Further On,” 405
“Gain,” 473
Garbage, xxxvi, xxxvii, xlii
“Garden,” 462
“Gardening,” 1024
“Generation Gap,” 1028
“Ghosts,” 1031
“Gilgamesh Was Very Lascivious,” 18
Glare, xxxiii, xlii
“Glass,” 113
“Glass Globe,” 752
“Golden Mean, The,” 83
“Grace Abounding,” 597
“Grass Miracles, The,” 19
“Grassy Sound,” 68
“Gravelly Run,” 139
“Ground Tide,” 572
“Guide,” 50
“Guitar Recitativos,” 412
“Halfway,” 357
“Handle,” 1023
“Hard Fist,” 818
“Hard Lard,” 815
“Hardweed Path Going,” xxxviii, 64
“Have You Seen the Severe Waters,” 792
“Having Been Interstellar,” 14
“Having to Do with Birth,” 761
“Heat,” 514
“He Held Radical Light,” 457
“Height,” 348
“Help,” 420
“Hen Pheasants Streak out of the, The,” 838
“[here a month of snow],” 896
“Here I Sit, Fifty in the,” 787
“Here & Now,” 496
“He Said,” 535
“Heterodoxy with Ennui,” 29
“Hibernaculum,” xli, xlii, 598
“Hieroglyphic Gathered, the Books, The,” 800
Highgate Road, xxv, 1020
“High & Low,” 444
“High Surreal,” 569
“Hippie Hop,” 462
“History,” 738
“Holding On,” 386
“Holly,” 423
“Hope’s Okay,” 406
“Hosts,” 479
“Hymn,” 37
“Hymn II,” 125
“Hymn III,” 126
“Hymn IV,” 463
“Hymn V,” 501
“I Assume the World is Curious About Me,” 16
“I Broke a Sheaf of Light,” 5
“I Came in a Dark Woods Upon,” 20
“I Came Upon a Plateau,” 27
“I Cannot Re-wind the Brook,” 1007
“I Come in from the Snowy World,” 846
“Identity,” 77
“If Anything Will Level with You Water Will,” 401
“If Walking Through Birdy Trees,” 1017
“If You Were Standing Under the Elm and,” 842
“I Knew,” 1007
“I Look Up Guff and Find the First,” 915
“Image,” 538
Image for Longing, An, xxxii, xxxiii, xxxv
“Imaginary Number,” 1030
“Imagined Land, The,” 532
“Imago,” 737
“Immediacy,” 1025
“Imperialist,” 737
“Impulse,” 419
“I’m the Type,” 972
“I’m Unwilling,” 958
“Increment,” 445
“Insouciance,” 724
“In Strasbourg in 1349,” 3
“Interference,” 358
“Interval,” 394
“In the Old,” 842
“In the Wind My Rescue Is,” 24
“Involved,” 488
“I See Downhill a Patch,” 875
“[I should have stayed longer idle],” 25
“I Struck a Diminished Seventh,” 17
“It Does Not Rain in,” 963
“Ithaca, N.Y.,” 368
“It’s April 1,” 957
“It’s a Wonder the Body,” 955
“It’s Half an Hour Later Before,” 936
“It Snowed All Night Snow,” 998
“It’s So Dry the Brook, Down,” 976
“Ivy, a Winding),” 795
“I Went Out to the Sun,” 6
“I Woke Up at 6 and It Was,” 940
“I Wonder If Pagan Is,” 984
“1 JAN:,” 292
“2 JAN:,” 297
“3 JAN:,” 305
“4 JAN:,” 308
“5 JAN:,” 310
“6 JAN:,” 312
“7 JAN:,” 316
“8 JAN:,” 324
“9 JAN:,” 331
“10 JAN:,” 339
“Jersey Cedars,” 63
“Joshua Tree,” 349
“Juice,” 741
“Jungle Knot,” 101
“Kind,” 348
“King Of Ice, The,” 533
“Landscape with Figures,” 351
“Laser,” 414
“Late Romantic,” 566
“Left,” 641
“Levitation,” 493
“Libation,” 134
“Life in the Boondocks,” 407
“Light Falls Shadow and Beam Through the Limbo,” 833
“Lightning,” 728
“Light Orders,” 738
“Like Fifty,” 909
“Limit, The,” 490
“Limp Lump,” 762
“Lines,” 96
“Lion::Mouse,” 513
“Locus,” 458
“Loft,” 464
“Lofty,” 1029
“Lollapalooza: 22 February,” 565
“Lonely Splendor,” 534
“Lonesome Valley,” 592
“Look for My White Self,” 453
“Looking Over The Acreage,” 472
“Loss,” 106
“Louise,” 760
“Love Song,” 421
“Love Song (2),” 421
“Make, The,” 741
“Makers, The,” 492
“Making,” 467
“Making Change,” xlivn6
“Making It,” 743
“Making Waves,” 530
“Mansion,” 59
“March Song,” 139
“Mark, The,” 464
“Marriage, The,” 729
“Mays Landing,” 380
“Mean,” 481
“Meanings,” 1022
“Measure,” 734
“Mechanics,�
�� 441
“Mechanism,” 45
“Mediation,” 516
“Medicine for Tight Spots,” 447
“Medium,” 494
“Meeting the Opposition,” 733
“Metaphysic,” 740
“Meteorology,” 478
“Mid-August,” 588
“Miltonic (Miltownic) Isn’t, The,” 966
“Mind,” 762
“Mirrorment,” 528
“Misfit, The,” xxxix, 132
“Miss,” 527
“Mission,” 489
“Mist Curtains Lower and Dissolve,” 834
“Modality,” 1022
“Moment,” 90
“Monday,” 495
“Money,” 510
“Morning Glory,” 114
“Motion,” 130
“Motion for Motion,” 75
“Mountain Liar,” 61
“Mountain Talk,” 419
“Mule Song,” 422
“Muse,” 376
“My,” 786
“My Dice Are Crystal,” 14
“My Father, I Hollow for You,” 1006
“My Father Used to Bring Banana,” 791
“My Father Used to Tell of an,” 968
“My Neighbor Shakes Feed along,” 878
“My Structure Is, Like the,” 988
“Narrows,” 725
“Natives,” 1028
“Nature As Waterfalls,” 879
“Needs,” 420
“Nelly Myers,” xxxviii, 42
“Next Day, The,” 573
“No Matter,” 974
Northfield Poems, xxxvi, 348
“North Jersey,” 476
“North Street,” 1026
“No Tirement Like Retirement,” 830
“Nucleus,” 84
“Numbers, The,” 389
“Object,” 571
“Obtrusion,” 759
“Ocean City,” 524
“Off,” 473
“Offset,” 418
Ommateum with Doxology, xxv, xxxii, xxxv, xxxvii, xxxviii, 2
“One at One with His Desire,” 917
“One Composing,” 23
“One Desires the Cutting,” 983
“One Loves,” 965
“One:Many,” 354
“One More Time,” 536
“One Must Recall as One Mourns the Dead,” 784
“One Thing and Another,” 1027
“One Trains Hard for,” 1013
“On Garbage,” xliin3
“On ‘Motion Which Disestablishes Organizes Everything,’“ xliv
“On ‘The Damned,’“ xliii
“On This Day Noteworthily Warm,” 986
“On Walks I Go a Long Way Along,” 1012
“Open,” 127
“Orientale,” 379
“Orthodoxy with Achievement,” 30
“Outside-the-Household Hint,” 739
“Paradise,” 764
“Paradox with Variety,” 31
“Passage,” 373
“Path,” 516
“Peak,” 374
“Peracute Lucidity,” 444
“Perfect Journey Is, The,” 895
“Periphery,” 397