Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Ghost Orchid


5 comments:

LKD said...

It really is ghostly.

And beautiful.

It almost looks like it's dancing.

LKD said...

You asked for a favorite Ashbery. I don't have a favorite.

Here's one I like a lot though:

Late Echo

lone with our madness and favorite flower
We see that there really is nothing left to write about.
Or rather, it is necessary to write about the same old things
In the same way, repeating the same things over and over
For love to continue and be gradually different.

Beehives and ants have to be re-examined eternally
And the color of the day put in
Hundreds of times and varied from summer to winter
For it to get slowed down to the pace of an authentic
Saraband and huddle there, alive and resting.

Only then can the chronic inattention
Of our lives drape itself around us, conciliatory
And with one eye on those long tan plush shadows
That speak so deeply into our unprepared knowledge
Of ourselves, the talking engines of our day.

--John Ashbery

Maggie said...

I like the poem selection...thanks!

What I meant was a favorite book of Ashbery poems--do you have one you like better than any others of his?

I sure wish I put the picture my sister gave me.

Isn't it hauntingly beautiful?

Jo A. T.B. said...

I never saw one like this Maggie, very pretty like it has legs! Almost looks like a bug of sorts, like a praying mantis.

Maggie said...

It does look like it has legs, and as Laurel says, like it's dancing!