I'm feeling a little bit pleased with myself for having completed my cover-to-cover reading of the first volume of The Complete Poems of Archie Ammons. When I excitedly embarked on reading the tome back in late May I don't think I envisaged it taking me the better part of seven months to get to 1977's Highgate Road, but then there were times I found myself so bogged down in particular poems (I'm thinking of Essay on Poetics, I'm thinking of Sphere, among others) that I saw myself still reading the volume in 2022 - not that I would have minded that, but I was keen to move onto Volume 2, or get back to William Carlos Williams (or Robert Lowell, whose big Collected Poems is in my sights.)
By the way, that final short book, Highgate Road, is a belter. Archie at his pithiest, in which mode he excels, as I was previously aware as a devoted fan of his little paperback, The Really Short Poems of A.R. Ammons. Actually, a few of the Highgate Road poems appear in the collection and it was wonderful encountering them in the bigger volume. Gorgeous stuff!
Oh, and I should finish off here by letting you know that I'm moving on with The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams, Volume II: 1939 - 1962. Started last night with The Swaggering Gait and very happy to do so. The great thing about being a poetry-lover is that you really can't lose, eh?
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