About John Ashbery
Widely recognized as one of the most influential American poets of our time, and a longtime Hudson resident, John Ashbery (1927-2017) received numerous awards for poetry, including the Yale Younger Poets Prize, Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, Antonio Feltrinelli International Prize for Poetry, Légion d'Honneur of the Republic of France, Grand Prix des Biennales Internationales de Poésie, International Griffin Poetry Prize, National Humanities Medal, and National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and many others. Ashbery received a number of honorary degrees, including, from among others, Harvard and Yale, and was also the first living poet to have his collected poems included in the prestigious Library of America series. His work intersects with the visual arts, theatre, film and other art forms, and continues to inspire countless readers and artists in many different fields.
The New Spirit (excerpt)
I thought that if I could put it all down, that would be one way. And next the thought came to me that to leave all out, would be another, and truer, way.
clean-washed sea
The flowers were.
These are examples of leaving out. But, forget as we will, something soon comes to stand in their place. Not the truth, perhaps, but—yourself. It is you who made this, therefore you are true. But the truth has passed on
to divide all.
Have I awakened? Or is this sleep again? Another form of sleep? There is no profile in the massed days ahead. They are impersonal as mountains whose tops are hidden in cloud. The middle of the journey, before the sands are reversed: a place of ideal quiet.
You are my calm world. This is my happiness. To stand, to go forward into it. The cost is enormous. Too much for one life.
— from Three Poems (© 1972 Estate of John Ashbery. All rights reserved. Used by arrangement with Georges Borchardt, Inc.)