I always thought that writing poetry was in itself a political act. John Ashbery More Quotes by John Ashbery More Quotes From John Ashbery Then let yourself love all that you take delight in John Ashbery self-love inspirational life Much that is beautiful must be discarded So that we may resemble a taller Impression of ourselves. John Ashbery impression may beautiful I write with experiences in mind, but I don't write about them, I write out of them. John Ashbery mind writing The summer demands and takes away too much. /But night, the reserved, the reticent, gives more than it takes John Ashbery summer giving night Reading is a pleasure, but to finish reading, to come to the blank space at the end, is also a pleasure. John Ashbery pleasure space reading What is the past, what is it all for? A mental sandwich? John Ashbery sandwiches past My feeling is that most political poetry is preaching to the choir, and that the people who are going to make the political changes in our lives are not the people who read poetry, unfortunately. Poetry not specifically aimed at political revolution, though, is beneficial in moving people toward that kind of action, as well as other kinds of action. A good poem makes me want to be active on as many fronts as possible. John Ashbery political-revolution people moving And so we turn the page over. To think of starting. This is all there is. John Ashbery starting pages thinking Poetry comes to me out of thin air or out of my unconscious mind. It's sort of the way dreams come to us and the way that we get knowledge from them, through television, old movies, which I watch a lot of. Lines of dialogue suddenly seem to be part of a poem. John Ashbery old-movie mind dream Poetry is mostly hunches. John Ashbery hunches poetry-is Life is beautiful. He who reads that John Ashbery beautiful inspirational life I don't find any direct statements in life. My poetry imitates or reproduces the way knowledge or awareness come to me, which is by fits and starts and by indirection. I don't think poetry arranged in neat patterns would reflect that situation. My poetry is disjunct, but then so is life. John Ashbery patterns way thinking How many people came and stayed a certain time, Uttered light or dark speech that became part of you Like light behind windblown fog and sand Filtered and influenced by it, until no part Remains that is surely you. John Ashbery fog light dark I don't look on poetry as closed works. I feel they're going on all the time in my head and I occasionally snip off a length. John Ashbery length feels looks The first year was like icing. Then the cake started to show through. John Ashbery cake years firsts Somewhere someone is traveling furiously toward you, At incredible speed, traveling day and night, Through blizzards and desert heat, across torrents, through narrow passes. But will he know where to find you, Recognize you when he sees you, Give you the thing he has for you? John Ashbery desert giving night In the increasingly convincing darkness The words become palpable, like a fruit That is too beautiful to eat. John Ashbery fruit darkness beautiful The soul establishes itself. But how far can it swim out through the eyes And still return safely to its nest? John Ashbery eye swim life The promise of learning is a delusion.... Tomorrow would alter the sense of what had already been learned, that the learning process is extended in this way, so that from this standpoint none of us ever graduates from college, for time is an emulsion, and probably thinking not to grow up is the brightest kind of maturity for us, right now at any rate. John Ashbery growing-up maturity college I listen to music a great deal. In a way, it's trying to express things that can't be expressed in words. That's something that interests me, too. Even though I use words to express myself, I am trying to, it seems to me, get beyond that. John Ashbery use trying way
