Monday, July 24, 2017

Paradoxes and Oxymorons by John Ashbery


Paradoxes and Oxymorons

This poem is concerned with language on a very plain level. 
Look at it talking to you. You look out a window 
Or pretend to fidget. You have it but you don’t have it. 
You miss it, it misses you. You miss each other. 

The poem is sad because it wants to be yours, and cannot. 
What’s a plain level? It is that and other things, 
Bringing a system of them into play. Play? 
Well, actually, yes, but I consider play to be 

A deeper outside thing, a dreamed role-pattern, 
As in the division of grace these long August days 
Without proof. Open-ended. And before you know 
It gets lost in the steam and chatter of typewriters. 

It has been played once more. I think you exist only 
To tease me into doing it, on your level, and then you aren’t there 
Or have adopted a different attitude. And the poem 
Has set me softly down beside you. The poem is you.



No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.