With The Flow

Have been getting on with reading the second volume of the Collected Poems of A.R. Ammons whilst we've been here. I finished the second volume in the W.C. Williams Collected just as the fasting month was ending but took a little while to get going on the Ammons volume, I suppose because I found its sheer bulk intimidating. Odd really, since it includes two of my favourite long poems - Garbage and Glare - which some years back marked my real introduction to his work, and which I've been looking forward to rereading.

The thing is that I've come to realise that quite a number of the poems don't make for easy reading regardless of how attractive I find so many aspects of the work. Yet I feel a strong compulsion to make sure I do justice to as many of them as I can. At least to feel how the thoughts move within them, even if some of those thoughts are beyond me.