{"id":114984,"date":"2017-09-05T15:33:10","date_gmt":"2017-09-05T19:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=114984"},"modified":"2017-09-05T15:42:01","modified_gmt":"2017-09-05T19:42:01","slug":"america-the-lovely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/05\/america-the-lovely\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAmerica the Lovely\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

John Ashbery. Photo: Lynn Davis<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

This week, in memory of our longtime contributor John Ashbery, we bring you a selection of his poems from our archive.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

America the Lovely<\/strong><\/p>\n

If it\u2019s loveliness you want, here, take some,
\nhissed the black fairy. Waiting for the string quartet,
\non the corner, denatured I wondered what the heck.
\nI\u2019ll have some too. They call it architecture,
\nI was told. Anything to sift the discerning
\nfrom the mob-capped mob, their stiffened frightwigs
\nmarching against the breeze improbably back
\ninto colonial dreams and days. See that polecat?
\nHe\u2019s yours, if you want it. Only be careful what you ask for,
\nshe warned. Here in hither Tartarus we have names
\nfor jerks like you. Flustered, I released the emergency brake,
\nturned to warn the approaching others.<\/p>\n

This was the real thing:
\nThe flash comes handily, signs of its musing scattered next day
\nlike hoar-frost. The glittering, the of-two-minds
\npause to share a winter pear and notes on decomposition
\nglued to the door of the fridge.
\nWas it for this we journeyed so far
\nby prairie schooner from reassuring Pennsylvania?
\nBelieve the nights are bleak now,
\nthough perhaps no more than our earliest attempts
\nat love poetry in a house across the street.
\nPagans do combat with other pagans,
\nmen with two hyphenated names block access
\nto the embarcadero.
\nPalinodes charm our hearing
\nas new strictures emerge in the ruckus, belike, betimes.<\/p>\n

Then it too went away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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