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A review by b_p
Breezeway: New Poems by John Ashbery
2.0
Ashbery is always... well, Ashbery. But later Ashbery is especially Ashbery. By "Ashbery", I mean frequently indecipherable avant-garde babble fodder. Maybe I'm not "NYC" enough to "get" Ashbery. Maybe, in my terminally uncultured state, I will be permanently reduced to "putting" far too many "words" in "quotation" "marks" while reviewing him. However, as in all Ashbery collections, there are some moments of hilarious poetry gold. Who says that Ashbery isn't trying to be funny? Among the WTF content of Breezeway, I still found many enjoyable moments.
Exhibit A:
"Forget any mistranslations, / miscommunications. The past / loves you, baby. / Go sandpaper a horse."
To be clear, I am all for experimenting with the English language. Poetry (especially with John Ashbery as leading linguist) is the perfect laboratory to conduct such madcap mischief. That being said, I cannot completely recommend this particular collection (to just any Goodreads/internet user) of Ashbery's work in good conscience. If you love Ashbery and/or poetry, go ahead. If you hate poetry or are at the very least skeptical of its value, this collection will only turn you off more. As somebody who recently constructed* a new bookshelf exclusively to house his collection of poetry, I fall into the former camp.
*Put together a bookshelf ordered from Target.com.
Exhibit A:
"Forget any mistranslations, / miscommunications. The past / loves you, baby. / Go sandpaper a horse."
To be clear, I am all for experimenting with the English language. Poetry (especially with John Ashbery as leading linguist) is the perfect laboratory to conduct such madcap mischief. That being said, I cannot completely recommend this particular collection (to just any Goodreads/internet user) of Ashbery's work in good conscience. If you love Ashbery and/or poetry, go ahead. If you hate poetry or are at the very least skeptical of its value, this collection will only turn you off more. As somebody who recently constructed* a new bookshelf exclusively to house his collection of poetry, I fall into the former camp.
*Put together a bookshelf ordered from Target.com.