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A. R. Ammons Biography

Archie Randolph Ammons (February 18, 1926 – February 25, 2001) was an American poet who won the annual National Book Award for Poetry in 1973 and 1993.

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A. R. Ammons Quotes

Things go away to return, brightened for the passage

Away, Going Away, Passage, Return, Things, Travel

I have a life that did not become, that turned aside and stopped, astonished

Aside, Astonished, Become, Life, Stopped, Turned

What destruction have I been blessed by?

Blessed, Destruction

If we ask a vague question, such as, 'What is poetry?' we expect a vague answer, such as, 'Poetry is the music of words,' or 'Poetry is the linguistic correction of disorder. '

Answer, Answers, Disorder, Expect, Poetry, What Is Poetry

I can't tell you where a poem comes from, what it is, or what it is for: nor can any other man. The reason I can't tell you is that the purpose of a poem is to go past telling, to be recognised by burning.

Man, Men, Past, Poem, Purpose, Reason

Anything looked at closely becomes wonderful.

Becomes, Closely, Looked, Wonderful

Poetry leads us to the unstructured sources of our beings, to the unknown, and returns us to our rational, structured selves refreshed. Having once experienced the mystery, plenitude, contradiction, and composure of a work of art, we afterward have a built-in resistance to the slogans and propaganda of oversimplification that have often contributed to the destruction of human life. Poetry is a verbal means to a nonverbal source. It is a motion to no-motion, to the still point of contemplation and deep realization.

Afterward, Art, Leads, Mean, Realization, Self

Though I have looked everywhere
I can find nothing lowly
in the universe.

I Can, Looked, Nothing, Though, Universe

I must stress here the point that I appreciate clarity, order, meaning, structure, rationality: they are necessary to whatever provisional stability we have, and they can be the agents of gradual and successful change.

Appreciate, Gradual, Meaning, Order, Stress, Successful

A poem generated by its own laws may be unrealized and bad in terms of so-called objective principles of taste, judgement, deduction.

Bad, Judgement, Law, Objective, Objectivity, Terms

With the first step, the number of shapes the walk might take is infinite, but then the walk begins to define itself as it goes along, though freedom remains total with each step: any tempting side road can be turned into an impulse, or any wild patch of woods can be explored. The pattern of the walk is to come true, is to be recognized, discovered.

Begins, Define, Freedom, Hiking, Journey, Numbers

You have your identity when you find out, not what you can keep your mind ON, but what you can't keep your mind OFF.

Identity, Keep, Life, Mind, Wisdom

Is it not careless to become too local when there are four hundred billion stars in our galaxy alone.

Billion, Four, Hundred, Local, Stars

Poetry leads us to the unstructured sources of our beings, to the unknown, and returns us to our rational, structured selves refreshed.

Beings, Leads, Return, Self, Source, Structured

Each poem in becoming generates the laws by which it is generated: extensions of the laws to other poems never completely take.

Law, Becoming, Extensions, Take, Generates

One can't have it both ways and both ways is the only way I want it.

Want, Way, Ways

Definition, rationality, and structure are ways of seeing, but they become prisons when they blank out other ways of seeing.

Definition, Definitions, Prisons, Seeing, Vision, Way

Besides the actual reading in class of many poems, I would suggest you do two things: first, while teaching everything you can and keeping free of it, teach that poetry is a mode of discourse that differs from logical exposition

Actual, Class, Differs, Everything, Reading, Teaching

I am grateful for - though I can't keep up with - the flood of articles, theses, and textbooks that mean to share insight concerning the nature of poetry.

Articles, Grateful, Mean, Textbooks, Though

The wonderful workings of the world: wonderful, wonderful: I'm surprised half the time

Half, Surprised, Wonderful, World

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A. R. Ammons Biography

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