Planisphere: New Poems [Paperback]

“Ashbery is a national treasure.”
—New York Times Book Review

The poetry of John Ashbery has been awarded virtually every conceivable literary prize including the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, theGriffin, and the National Book Critics Circle Award.Planisphereis a new collection by one ofAmerica’s most innovative and influential poets—an exceptional artist whose work stands alongside the finest ofWhitman, Dickinson, Stevens, and Hart Crane. For more than half a century Ashbery has been producing timeless works such asChinese Whispers, Hotel Lautréamont, A Wave, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror,andWhere Shall I Wander.Planisphereis proof that the master only improves with age.

Breathlike

Just as the day could use another hour,
I need another idea. Not a concept
or a slogan. Something more like a rut
made thousands of years ago by one of the first
wheels as it rolled along. It never came back
to see what it had done, and the rut
just stayed there, not thinking of itself
or calling attention to itself in any way.
Sun baked it. Water stood, or rather sat
in it. Wind covered it with dust, then blew it
away. Always it was available to itself
when it wished to be, which wasn't often.

Thló"