Four introductions to poetry readings given by birthday boy John Ashbery.
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. .. with John everything seems significant. "Mountain ash mindlessly dropping its berries" is one phrase in which he consciously puts himself in a line by punning on his name. The adverb makes quite a difference. When Ashbery says "ashtray" it means ashtray and maybe something else as well. — DL
from the archive: posted by The Best American Poetry on April 07, 2018 at 05:08 PM