The Really Short Poems of A.R. Ammons. This item is unavailable.The Really Short Poems of A.R. Ammons

Few, if any, collections of poems by a major poet have ever demonstrated more forcefully than this one that brevity is the soul of wit. The Really Short Poems of A.R. Ammon's brings together some 160 short poems, spanning Ammon's whole career, ranging from mordantly funny paradoxes to intensely compressed instants of lyric perception. Each one demonstrates the transcendent qualities of intellect and craft that have made A.R. Ammon's among the most honoured American poets today. They comprise a uniquely entertaining volume that makes his genius accessible to a new generation of readers. "Ammon's originality does not reside only in the singular awareness of science that informs much of his work...Nobody else's poems manage to sound quite so genuine and unforced as they compress observation into metaphor, identifying the poet's self with what he sees".

The best short poems return much more than they demand, and these insightful brevities culled from 40 years of Ammons's work require a steamship to haul their pleasures home to the reader. Rarely venturing beyond a terse tenth line, they encompass wit ("It's hard/ to live/ living it/ up/ down"), paradox ("I have nowhere/ to go and/ nowhere to go/ when I get/ back from there"), koan -like mystery ("What lightning/ strikes/ in an/ instant/the boulder hums/ all year"), and an unusual understanding of nature's processes and politics ("The reeds give/ way to the/wind and give/ the wind away"). Perfect for those who claim no time for poetry, this can be savored in bits or in batches. Hope and expect to spot it frequently at subway stops and luncheonettes.
- Fred Muratori, Cornell Univ. Lib.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.