by A. R. Ammons
what will time, if time alone will tell, tell, 642
whatever happens now (let’s pray that it will, 632
When “hyperemia and infiltration of leukocytes, 878
When a person inquires too much into my, 725
When consistency forms a current, 842
When death shuts, 861
When everything is leveled off, 185
when gliding perhaps under a glacier, 140
When I find my new shape (hobbyhorse, roller, 409
when I heard the learned astonisher, I said, 662
when I was young under the apple, 477
When I went out in the dewy morning this, 744
When I, 821
when I’m interviewed I tell the wide-open, 643
When ist is it too late to start over, 921
When it gets hot here it’s really noticeable, 859
When possibility fell, 56
When the bubbles of nothingness rise, 942
When the crow, 203
When the forehead drains, 204
when the hand falls apart it makes, 111
When the jay caught, 186
when the trees tug trying to hold, 591
When unity, having found its way throughout, 203
When we have, 56
When what it was is what it is (or when what, 726
Where are the shifts, 9
where do poems come from: you may, 497
Where does the locus lie, 815
where is one to find room enough to, 467
wherever mortality sets up a net, 123
Why not let the name go with the body, 30
will I will the will to go on—what?—, 556
Will you, considering the life I have borne, 792
William James (The Varieties of Religious Experience, p. 84) is to be, 838
Wind rocks, 203
Wind, though in the temple, 33
Winnowy, chafflike, pelleted snow’s, 852
Wish is a closer, 57
With my wife and me, it isn’t so much that we, 723
Without linkage or, 187
words cast up, 118
You came to see me one day and, 203
You can have your bathroom window open an inch, 748
You can turn goats loose on an island, 188
You can’t, 217
you could wish you were dead before it’s too, 636
You don’t put them in, they can’t stay in, 701
you don’t want to succeed too early and live, 255
you dragass around: you know you’re, 576
You know how babies in kindergarten catch (or, 699
You mosey around, idling here and, 316
You must be, 204
you say I have no form, 773
you scan the surface and not a crevice, 595
you think if you say you’re going to die, you, 618
You think the ridge hills flower, breaking, 57
You turn to others, 402
You’ll rejoice at how many kinds of shit there are, 47
you’ve probably heard the one about the lay of, 622
your insidious eloquence makes me seek the, 612
Copyright © 2017, 2006, 2005 by John R. Ammons
Copyright © 1999, 1997, 1996, 1993, 1990, 1987, 1983, 1982, 1981, 1978 by A. R. Ammons
All rights reserved
First Edition
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Book design by Helene Berinsky
Production manager: Julia Druskin
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Names: Ammons, A. R., 1926–2001. | West, Robert, 1969– editor. |
Vendler, Helen, 1933– writer of introduction.
Title: The complete poems of A. R. Ammons / edited by Robert M. West ; introduction by Helen Vendler. Other titles: Poems
Description: First edition. | New York : W. W. Norton & Company, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Contents: v. 1. 1955–1977.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017047332 | ISBN 9780393070132 (hardcover : v. 1) | ISBN 9780393254891 (hardcover : v. 2)
Classification: LCC PS3501 .M6 2017 | DDC 811/.54—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017047332
ISBN: 978-0-39325-490-7 (ebk.)
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