[.ca] Garbage A Poem (ISBN 0393324117)

From Amazon.com:
"Garbage," A.R. Ammons writes in this book-length poem, "has to be the poem of our time because / garbage is spiritual, believable enough / to get our attention, getting in the way..." Talky and playful, the couplets of the National Book Award-winning Garbage propel one through the trash dump of 20th-century meaning, as well as into the past and future, where "millennia jiggle in your eyes at night." This project, by turns wryly self-deprecating and densely philosophical, places Ammons in the company of such recent epic funnymen as John Ashbery, Ronald Johnson, and, very self-consciously, William Carlos Williams. Like any good epic, the poem begins in doubt, with Ammons wondering whether to write the book or simply retire and live a life of leisure on Social Security (plus a surely ample pension from his longtime Cornell University professorship). Like John Milton in the preamble to his epic, Paradise Lost, Ammons uses the metaphor of a tree to focus his poetic ambition. "I mean," he writes, "take my yard maple--put out in the free / and open--has overgrown, its trunk / split down from a high fork ... The fat tree, unable to stop pouring it on, overfed and overgrew ... It just / goes to show you: moderation imposed is better / than no moderation at all." Indeed, the poem's 121 pages seem at times nothing more than an attempt to buoy the moment between two extremes: exuberant falsehoods at one end of the scale, cynical platitudes on the other. This "moderation" has served as Ammons' dominant aesthetic during his long poetic career, though Garbage's length and epic ambitions disrupt his trademark austerity. Despite his tangential questioning of reality and time, the poem's ultimate wisdom lies in how it imagines the actively good person, one who sees that ...life, life is like a poem: the moment it begins, it begins to end: the tension this establishes makes every move and movement, every gap and stumble, every glide and rise significant In a time when most poetry is about loss, Ammons wanders through our community junkyard and, with his good eye, points out what's valuable, and tells us, in his trustworthy tone, why. --Edward Skoog

a timeless poet & master of the long poem:
This book is brilliant, & so unique, through & through. Very particular music, with amazing, complex metaphors; a luminous lexus; a solid, earthy grip in the world with settings in real places such as route I-95 in Florida; & even humor. For example, at one moment in the book, there's an archetype which he comments on being "another Archie." His poetry never stops moving. I think his writing, especially this book with all its idosyncrasies & ideas, is very important poetry to know.

Who could trash this???:
I think it's fantastic that Norton has reissued Garbage. It and the earlier Tape for the Turn of the Year are great examples of how the long poem can still be a fun, engaging, page-turner of a genre. Ammons was a crackerjack writer and he is at his best in Garbage. It starts off with an audacious premise - that garbage is a worthy subject for epic poetry. But, the next thing you know, Ammons is making you a believer with his astounding lyricism and exuberance. He then turns his romanticized trash heap into a springboard for a engaging discussion of life, art and the question of what is permanent. Garbage is bursting at the seams with Ammons' wry humor, old-fashioned homespun wisdom and refreshingly self-deprecating honesty about the befuddlement of the human condition. A hoot to read!

Reverent refuse:
This is one of the most thought provoking and inspiring poetry books i have ever come accross. Ammons, an acknowledged icon of modern day poetry opens the world beyond the lyrical ballad and onto a garbage dump. inquisitive, sardonic and exhilaratingly optimistic, Ammons makes us question the way we look at life while conducting us along the I-95

One of the century's top 3:
In terms of importance and pleasure--perhaps the only meaningful qualities of verse--Garbage is right up there with Harmonium and the Four Quartets. I can think of no other books last century which have had such a profound effect on the art than the aforementioned books of Stevens and Eliot. Garbage is sure to have such an effect for 21st century poets. It has completely transformed my poetry; I can no longer write in a stilted and affected voice. What's more, it has provided me days upon days of intellectual pleasure. The Ammons line is something totally unprecedented in poetry. Tentative, flippant, musical, supple and tough: ...Mike, the young kid who does things for us, cut down the thrift with his weedeater, those little white flowers more like weedsize more than likely: sometimes called cliff rose: also got the grass out of the front ditch now too wet to mow, slashed: the dispositional axis is not supreme (how tedious) and not a fiction (how clever) but plain (greatness flows through the lowly) and a fact (like as not) Ultimately it is poets who decide which poet achieves greatness and which poet is forgotten. I believe Ammons will influence the coming generation of poets more than anyone else will, and Garbage is sure to play a starring role in this influence.

I prefer the ed & cust. reviewers vs Garbage(the book):
My sister and her husband have a copy of A. R. Ammon's "Garbage" on one of their book shelves..in curiosity I browsed a page or two..than browed amazon.com's editorial and customer reviews..the reviews(in my opinion) elevate the book of a poem to a height of accomplished when in truth it is reflecting the yawn of a benign vs the cum si,cum sa benign with the question "WHERE DO I GO TO NOW?" (as stated and reinstated in the movie "Evita").A.R.Ammons(according to the reviews is concerned about his ability as a person to find enough facets within himself to not need to search for something(anything ) to be a valued focus.You must not be a 'bore' in order to prevent boredom(many a person who does nothing(often for R & R:Rest & Relaxation) has acomplished in their own subliminal(due to attitude) enough perception that they are not overwhelmed when there is a lack of 'do or die' outside of themself. 8/7/01 ...