A. R. Ammons
A. R. Ammons
Archie Randolph Ammonswas an American poet who won the annual National Book Award for Poetry in 1973 and 1993...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth18 February 1926
CountryUnited States of America
past men burning
I can't tell you where a poem comes from, what it is, or what it is for: nor can any other man. The reason I can't tell you is that the purpose of a poem is to go past telling, to be recognised by burning.
real world favors
There's something to be said in favor of working in isolation in the real world.
analogies firsts walks
I take the walk to be the externalization of an interior seeking so that the analogy is first of all between the external and the internal.
law becoming extensions
Each poem in becoming generates the laws by which it is generated: extensions of the laws to other poems never completely take.
answers disorder what-is-poetry
If we ask a vague question, such as, 'What is poetry?' we expect a vague answer, such as, 'Poetry is the music of words,' or 'Poetry is the linguistic correction of disorder.'
vision definitions way
Definition, rationality, and structure are ways of seeing, but they become prisons when they blank out other ways of seeing.
law objectivity judgement
A poem generated by its own laws may be unrealized and bad in terms of so-called objective principles of taste, judgement, deduction.
stars four hundred
Is it not careless to become too local when there are four hundred billion stars in our galaxy alone.
risk poet said
The poet exposes himself to the risk. All that has been said about poetry, all that he has learned about poetry, is only a partial assurance.
experience opinion direct
Everything is discursive opinion instead of direct experience.
reading poetry-reading theater
It's not a love of poetry readings that attracts those who do come to them but theater.
acceptance lines boundaries
I have reached no conclusions, have erected no boundaries, shutting out and shutting in, separating inside from outside: I have drawn no lines
attention results greater
Probably all the attention to poetry results in some value, though the attention is more often directed to lesser than to greater values
needs unlimited certain
For though we often need to be restored to the small, concrete, limited, and certain, we as often need to be reminded of the large, vague, unlimited, unknown