I've now covered Ammons's poetry from the first couple of decades of his work, having just arrived at his book-length Sphere: The Form of a Motion from 1974 in Volume 1 of the Complete Poems. Astonishing stuff. Uneven in quality, and sometimes impenetrably difficult - at least for this reader - but always engrossing. Above all, genuinely funny. I laughed out loud three times this evening when reading another longish winter piece, Hibernaculum from 1970 - 1971. The bit where he details the exact cost of some car repairs made me want to cheer. Mind you, I also found myself frowning a time or two reading the poem regarding lines that lost me. Good job, I don't mind being lost in this writer's company.
I can think of quite a number of poets from the second half of the twentieth century I greatly admire. But A.R. Ammons is the one I love.
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