The Selected Poems

Only recently did I learn of the American poet A.R. Ammons (1926-2001). From North Carolina and long associated with Cornell University, he twice won the National Book Award for Poetry and also was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. THE SELECTED POEMS: EXPANDED EDITION is my introduction to his poetry. (The book was published in 1987 and Ammons did the selecting.)The book contains eighty-eight poems. Most are a page in length or shorter; the longest is four pages. Some have a loose structure. Long, discursive sentences (or thoughts) are common. Many of the poems employ unconventional formatting and in many cases I don't understand the rationale behind the formatting. Punctuation and line breaks often seem haphazard, as well.Many of the poems deal with the natural world: fauna, flora, and geology. Two frequent settings are seashore/tidal estuary and mountainous foothills. The wind is a recurring phenomenon, or character. There is a scientific bent, as well as a metaphysical one merging into the mystical. Few poems deal with interpersonal relationships or interactions. A handful deal with questions relating to the self's existence. For the most part, the poems are more intellectual in affect than emotional. While there isn't much sorrow, neither is there much happiness. Instead, Ammons' s poetry tends to be characterized by a chilly, crystalline matter-of-factness. At least he does not strike me as pretentious, like so many other American poets of his generation.Of the eighty-eight poems, I marked ten to re-read when I next pick up the book (Insh'allah). Here is one of them, somewhat warmer and less intellectual than is the norm. It is entitled "Love Song (2)":Rings of birch barkstand in the woodsstill circling the nearlyvanished log: afterwe go to passthrough log and starthis white song willhug us together in thewoods of some lover's head.

Several years ago I fell in love with the poetry of A. R. Ammons. I have several of his collections on my bookshelves. I think his "Selected Poems" is my favorite. Three of the poems in that collection I have read probably twenty times: "Corson's Inlet," "Easter Morning," and "Identity." All three speak directly to the tension between the universal and the particular which is, I suppose, one of the chief interests of most poets. Most of his poems are page length, although a handful go three or four pages. I read both fiction and non-fiction, and if I had to be alone with only one book for an entire year, this might be it.

Published in 1987, this book contains page-length poems selected by the author. You don't read these poems to get a story line, but rather a feeling of place. With Ammons its the precise observation of nature "Bees stopped on the rock", or a "Snow log". There are also mirrors of the self, "of a life that did become" in the poem Easter morning. In some ways, he is a modern Transcendentalist, looking at nature, observing carefully, and looking even deeper. I recommend this book to anyone, and its a good introduction to Ammons.

I bought it for one poem: "Love Song". It is the best poem about love and lust that I have ever read.

A welcome addition to my poetry collection. I don't know much about the author's work but I love what I have read. This edition is beautifully presented and the item arrived exactly as promised