"Just Walking Around" [by John Ashbery & new bio notes]

Just Walking Around

What name do I have for you?
Certainly there is no name for you
In the sense that the stars have names
That somehow fit them. Just walking around,

An object of curiosity to some,
But you are too preoccupied
By the secret smudge in the back of your soul
To say much and wander around,

Smiling to yourself and others.
It gets to be kind of lonely
But at the same time off-putting.
Counterproductive, as you realize once again

That the longest way is the most efficient way,
The one that looped among islands, and
You always seemed to be traveling in a circle.
And now that the end is near

The segments of the trip swing open like an orange.
There is light in there and mystery and food.
Come see it.
Come not for me but it.
But if I am still there, grant that we may see each other.

-- John Ashbery

John Ashbery is like a John Ashbery sentence. A John Ashbery sentence is lived unconsciously, and its “meaning” in retrospect is another thing -- if a cluster of words can constitute a "thing."

John Ashbery wrote a poem with the title "Like a Sentence."

John Ashbery chuckled like Popeye at the thought of a prose poem in which every sentence begins with his name followed by an unexpected predicate.

John Ashbery will check in on you before he leaves.

John Ashbery, a Quiz Kid alumnus, felt he had a good understanding of such matters as shame and loneliness.

John Ashbery's scarf was his Rosebud.

John Ashbery enjoyed goofy American things like the song "Mairsy Doats" sung by the Merrymnakers in the 1940s. 

John Asdbery completed the last sentence that began "John Ashbery."

John Ashbery had very little interest in baseball and jazz.  He spoke from the margin.

John Ashbery never got used to being photographed.

John Ashbery did not recognize the voice of John Ashbery.

John Ashbery did not march in the St. Patrick's Day parade.

John Ashbery read at the Best American Poetry 2008 reading at the New School's Tishman Auditorium (66 West 12 Street in NYC) on Thursday evening, September 25, at 7 PM.

Comments

[Terence Winch]

Can it really be said for certain that John Ashbery did not march in the St. Patrick's Day parade?

[Sally]

I too chuckle like Popeye.

Thanks for this!

(nyuk, nyuk, nyuk)