Trying to carve out time to get on with my reading of The Complete Poems of A. R. Ammons, Volume 2 - and, to some small degree succeeding, despite the demands of examination marking for the IB and family stuff. I'd lost a bit of momentum after completing the brilliant Bosh and Flapdoodle sequence from 2005 partly because I was a touch doubtful that the final 150+ pages comprising appendices featuring uncollected & posthumously published poems would match up to my (high) expectations of Archie. It didn't help that I'd struggled with the Brink Road material near the beginning of this volume.
Anyway, it looks like I was wrong - very happily so. I'm 9 poems in and they've all been rewarding in their different ways (stretching from 1956 - 1964 in terms of dates, so distinctly different in style given the poet's development over those years.) Astonishing to think of just how much great stuff finds its way into the two volumes of the Complete.
One small example: Just read Sung Reassertions, a 1963 piece after a poem by William Carlos Williams that's not exactly in the usual Archie mode. In fact, it's got more than an element of Dr Williams about it, but I reckon is almost better than Williams at his considerable best. (It spins off from a late WCW poem about roosters crowing, exploring the idea of them marking out their territory through sound and features some killer lines along the way - the sun / his embassy of light, colors // the throne-room of his breast... I mean, blimey, how good is that?!!)
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