Poem

. . . by an Earthquake

John Ashbery

A hears by chance a familiar name, and the name solves a
      riddle of the past.
B, in love with A, receives an unsigned letter in which the
      writer states that she is the mistress of A and begs B not
      to take him away from her.
B, compelled by circumstances to be a companion of A in an
      isolated place, alters her rosy views of love and marriage
      when she discovers, through A, the selfishness of men.
A, an intruder in a strange house, is discovered; he flees
      through the nearest door into a windowless closet and is
      trapped by a spring lock.
A is so content with what he has that any impulse toward
      enterprise is throttled.
A solves an important mystery when falling plaster reveals the
      place where some old love letters are concealed.
A-4, missing food from his larder, half believes it was taken
      by a “ghost”.
A, a crook, seeks unlawful gain by selling A-8 an object, X,
      which A-8 already owns.
A sees a stranger, A-5, stealthily remove papers, X, from the
      pocket of another stranger, A-8, who is asleep. A follows
      A-5.
A sends an infernal machine, X, to his enemy, A-3, and it
      falls into the hands of A’s friend, A-2.
Angela tells Philip of her husband’s enlarged prostate, and
      asks for money.
Philip, ignorant of her request, has the money placed in an
      escrow account.
A discovers that his pal, W, is a girl masquerading as a boy.
A, discovering that W is a girl masquerading as a boy, keeps
      the knowledge to himself and does his utmost to save the
      masquerader from annoying experiences.
A, giving ten years of his life to a miserly uncle, U, in exchange
      for a college education, loses his ambition and enterprise.

A, undergoing a strange experience among a people weirdly
      deluded, discovers the secret of the delusion from Herschel,
      one of the victims who has died. By means of information
      obtained from the notebook, A succeeds in rescuing the
      other victims of the delusion.
A dies of psychic shock.
Albert has a dream, or an unusual experience, psychic or
      otherwise, which enables him to conquer a serious character
      weakness and become successful in his new narrative, “Boris
      Karloff.”

Silver coins from the Mojave Desert turn up in the possession
      of a sinister jeweler.
Three musicians wager that one will win the affections of the
      local kapellmeister’s wife; the losers must drown themselves
      in a nearby stream.
Ardis, caught in a trap and held powerless under a huge
      burning glass, is saved by an eclipse of the sun.
Kent has a dream so vivid that it seems a part of his waking
      experience.
A and A-2 meet with a tragic adventure, and A-2 is killed.
Elvira, seeking to unravel the mystery of a strange house in
      the hills, is caught in an electrical storm. During the storm
      the house vanishes and the site on which it stood becomes
      a lake.
Alphonse has a wound, a terrible psychic wound, an invisible
      psychic wound, which causes pain in flesh and tissue which,
      otherwise, are perfectly healthy and normal.
A has a dream which he conceives to be an actual experience.
Jenny, homeward bound, drives and drives, and is still driving,
      no nearer to her home than she was when she first started.
Petronius B. Furlong’s friend, Morgan Windhover, receives a
      wound from which he dies.
Thirteen guests, unknown to one another, gather in a spooky
      house to hear Toe reading Buster’s will.
Buster has left everything to Lydia, a beautiful Siamese girl
      poet of whom no one has heard.
Lassie and Rex tussle together politely; Lassie, wounded, is
      forced to limp home.
In the Mexican gold rush a city planner is found imprisoned
      by outlaws in a crude cage of sticks.
More people flow over the dam and more is learned about
      the missing electric cactus.
Too many passengers have piled onto a cable car in San
      Francisco; the conductor is obliged to push some of them
      off.
Maddalena, because of certain revelations she has received,
      firmly resolves that she will not carry out an enterprise that
      had formerly been dear to her heart.

Fog enters into the shaft of a coal mine in Wales.
A violent wind blows the fog around.
Two miners, Shawn and Hillary, are pursued by the fumes.
Perhaps Emily’s datebook holds the clue to the mystery of the
      seven swans under the upas tree.
Jarvis seeks to manage Emily’s dress shop and place it on a
      paying basis. Jarvis’s bibulous friend, Emily, influences
      Jarvis to take to drink, scoffing at the doctor who has
      forbidden Jarvis to indulge in spirituous liquors.
Jarvis, because of a disturbing experience, is compelled to turn
      against his friend, Emily.
A ham has his double, “Donnie,” take his place in an
      important enterprise.
Jarvis loses his small fortune trying to help a friend.
Lodovico’s friend, Ambrosius, goes insane from eating the
      berries of a strange plant, and makes a murderous attack
      on Lodovico.
“New narrative” is judged seditious. Hogs from all over go
      squealing down the street.
Ambrosius, suffering from misfortune, seeks happiness in the
      companionship of Joe, and in playing golf.
Arthur, in a city street, has a glimpse of Cathy, a strange
      woman who has caused him to become involved in a
      puzzling mystery.
Cathy, walking in the street, sees Arthur, a stranger, weeping.
Cathy abandons Arthur after he loses his money and is injured
      and sent to a hospital.
Arthur, married to Beatrice, is haunted by memories of a
      former sweetheart, Cornelia, a heartless coquette whom
      Alvin loves.

Sauntering in a park on a fine day in spring, Tricia and Plotinus
      encounter a little girl grabbing a rabbit by its ears. As they
      remonstrate with her, the girl is transformed into a mature
      woman who regrets her feverish act.
Running up to the girl, Alvin stumbles and loses his coins.
In a nearby dell, two murderers are plotting to execute a third.
Beatrice loves Alvin before he married.
B, second wife of A, discovers that B-3, A’s first wife, was
unfaithful.
B, wife of A, dons the mask and costume of B-3, A’s paramour,
      and meets A and B-3; his memory returns and he forgets B-3,
      and goes back to B.
A discovers the “Hortensius,” a lost dialogue of Cicero, and
      returns it to the crevice where it lay.
Ambrose marries Phyllis, a nice girl from another town.
Donnie and Charlene are among the guests invited to the
      window.
No one remembers old Everett, who is left to shrivel in a
      tower.
Pellegrino, a rough frontiersman in a rough frontier camp,
      undertakes to care for an orphan.
Ildebrando constructs a concealed trap, and a person near to
      him, Gwen, falls into the trap and cannot escape.

 

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