{"id":115044,"date":"2017-09-08T11:01:20","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T15:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=115044"},"modified":"2017-09-07T15:02:49","modified_gmt":"2017-09-07T19:02:49","slug":"korean-soap-opera-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/08\/korean-soap-opera-2\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cPlainness in Diversity\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

Plainness in Diversity<\/strong><\/p>\n

Silly girls your heads full of boys
\nThere is a last sample of talk on the outer side
\nYour stand at last lifts to dumb evening
\nIt is reflected in the steep blue sides of the crater
\nSo much water shall wash over these our breaths
\nYet shall remain unwashed at the end. The fine
\nBranches of the fir tree catch at it, ebbing.
\nNot on our planet is the destiny
\nThat can make you one.<\/p>\n

To be placed on the side of some mountain
\nIs the truer story, with the breath only
\nComing in patches at first, and then the little spurt
\nThe way a steam engine starts up eventually.
\nThe sagas purposely ignore how better off it was the next day,
\nThe feeling in between the chapters, like fins.
\nThere is so much they must say, and it is important
\nAbout all the swimming motions, and the way the hands
\nCame up out of the ocean with original fronds,
\nThe famous arrow, the girl who came at dawn
\nTo pay a visit to the young child, and how, when he grew up to be a man
\nThe same restive ceremony replaced the limited years between
\nOnly now he was old, and forced to begin the journey to the sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, in memory of our longtime contributor John Ashbery, we bring you a selection of his poems from our archive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[5234,30434,3539,165],"class_list":["post-115044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-memoriam","tag-john-ashbery","tag-plainness-in-diversity","tag-poem","tag-poetry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPlainness in Diversity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This week, in memory of our longtime contributor John Ashbery, we bring you a selection of his poems from our archive.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/08\/korean-soap-opera-2\/\" 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