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This poem takes the form of a month-long journal, composed on a roll of adding machine tape. ... Read more

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A New Year's Poem
This book length poem was written with several things in mind.First, the title is literal.Ammons wanted to write a poem confined in length and width by composing the entire poem on a roll of adding machine tape, and the result was a diary of the last part of one year and the beginning of another.

Ammons seems to be at very ease with the notion of composing poetry, bringing forth an informal voice, probably a necessary step for such a long poem with such a purpose, and draws in the reader with a confidence that is refreshing.he breaks down the structure of the poem and uses deceptively simple, and straight forward language to mark the passing of time.Broken by days, Ammon expresses the essence of the poet's mind, allowing for the day's mood to dictate not only tone, but length and scope within the writing.

I feel very at home with this poem.I feel like sitting in a rocker with some classical piano music in the background whenever I open this book.I only regret thatcannot find time to read this book as often as I would like.Re-released to coincide with Ammon's book, Garbage, Tape for the turn is a wonderful book with quite a few quiet revelations that will keep you thinking all day long. ... Read more

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"No other contemporary poet, in America, is likelier to become a classic than A. R. Ammons."—Harold BloomBosh and Flapdoodle is A. R. Ammons's last completed collection of poetry. Written over a six-week period, the book offers a series of candid, alternately hilarious and heartbreaking ruminations on age, illness, and death, while still finding room for the poet's always penetrating observations of daily life and natural events. ... Read more

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One punctuation mark (:) fits all
Recurring themes: the indignity of old age and disease, the meaning of life, the act of writing poetry, long-married life. Sometimes humorous; sometimes punny; sometimes over-reaching and demanding and more work than I'm willing to do.Ammons called this "prosetry," not poetry: Not completely accurate. ... Read more

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This book collects many of the poems that A. R. Ammons wrote between 1964 and 1970. The poems here include brief lyrics and such longer works as "Summer Session 1968" and "Guitar Recicativos."The critic Harold Bloom writes, "With the publication of his Selected Poems (1968), soon after turning forty, A. R. Ammons quietly demonstrated a unique and central position in recent American poetry. . . . Recognition, as is always the case with a poetry difficult and central, has come slowly, but critics now begin to see in Ammons what he is: the maker of a body of poetry that fulfills Emerson's prophecy by addressing itself to life 'with sufficient plainness and with sufficient profoundness.'" ... Read more

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Lake Effect Country is the newest collection by the poet whom the critic Josephine Jacobsen has described as "a formidable and outstandingly original contributor to the best of American poetry."Presenting the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry for 1981 to Ammons's A Coast of Trees Richard Locke, editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair, said, in part: "In the thirty years since A. R. Ammons published his first poems, he has fashioned a body of work that achieves a rare amplitude, specific gravity, and high seriousness. He is a poet of the American Sublime—a nature poet, as we say—standing in the tradition of Wordsworth, Emerson, and Whitman. Amidst the hue and cry of contemporary poetical factions, his work pursues its own integrity: clear, unblinking in its self-knowledge, remarkable for its radiant density of argument and feeling." ... Read more

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Ammons's poetic genius has always been at home in forms ranging from brief lyrics to longer works.In the present volume—the first since his highly acclaimed Lake Effect Country—readers will find superb examples of work in both forms. "The Ridge Farm," which begins the book, and "Tombstones," at its center, are fine longer meditations, while "Motion's Holdings," the concluding section, contains a number of his best new shorter poems. The book is proof, once again, that Ammons is one of our major American poets. ... Read more

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Diversifications is a collection of shorter poems by the poet whose Collected Poems won the National Book Award.The poems are on a diversity of subjects, but through them all runs the strong unity of vision that has led critic Geoffrey Hartman to acclaim Ammons as "a major American poet" (New York Times Book Review). "If his importance was suspected before," wrote the poet John Ashbery in The New York Review of Books, "it is now confirmed." Ammons came late to poetry, and has come even more lately into national recognition. That recognition is solid, however, and can only be increased by this, his latest volume. ... Read more

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In the poetry of A. R. Ammons, Helen Vendler has written, "the scientific world is beautifully in balance with the perceptual one." Originally published in 1982, this collection reminds us why Ammons must be read by all those who would understand our age and one of its most brilliant voices. ... Read more

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A Great Place to Start
Ammons passed away recently, leaving behind a great body of work.This volume is one of, if not the, best example of his short lyrics.His word-play reflects a deep respect and understanding of the word as well as nature.The publishers chose a great book to republish in honor of his death. ... Read more

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Mr. Ammons' poetry has appeared in such publications as the Hudson Review, The Nation (for which he was at one time poetry editor), the New York Times, Poetry, and the Partisan Review.

Ommateum, his first book, was published in 1955, and was followed in 1964 by Expressions of Sea Level. Corsons Inlet and Tape for the Turn of the Year were published in 1965 by Cornell University Press. In 1966, Mr. Ammons received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship for creative writing in poetry.

Customer Reviews (1)

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I used to own a copy of this, but it got lost along the way.The only poem from it that I remember by name is "Nellie Meyers," which stays with me years later, though I don't know why.I think because it and other parts of the book are nearly completely unguarded, in an innocent way.Perhaps it is on the other end of the spectrum from Glare. ... Read more

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Set in Motion collects for the first time the prose writings of A. R. Ammons, one of our most important and enduring contemporary poets. Hailed as a major force in American poetry by such redoubtable critics as Harold Bloom and Helen Vendler, Ammons has reflected upon the influences of luminaries like Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Frost, Stevens, and Williams while creating a compelling style and an artistic vision uniquely his own.
Set in Motion includes essays, reviews, and interviews as well as a selection of Ammons's poems, with commentary from the author about their inspiration and effects. He takes up the questions that have been central to American poetry over the last forty years and connects them to the larger enterprise of living in a difficult, changing world. At a moment when the arts are under attack, Ammons reminds us of the crucial role poetry plays in teaching us to recognize and use sources of understanding that are irreducible to statement.
A. R. Ammons is the author of Sphere, A Coast of Trees, and Garbage and was recently the editor of The Best American Poetry 1994. His awards include the MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships, the Bollingen Prize, two National Book Awards, and prizes from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Book Critics Circle. He is Goldwin Smith Professor of Poetry, Cornell University.
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