Glad you found this, Jill. Reminds me of a library archivist/curator I know who
- speaking of journals & letters - complained there was way too much about the
weather. I suspect Ashberry was lightening up the possible pompous heaviness
sounding "love" & "death.'
We're are on wet cold streak here that goes straight to the heart & will
probably kill off a few of the old - not many of which (the heart or death) -
will yield a poem; but now just in the thought of it - what we might - in that
resonance - be or not be losing.
Stephen V
________________________________
From: Jill Jones <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thu, February 17, 2011 11:25:41 PM
Subject: re-membering moment
Small serendipitous moment:
For a number of years, I had been referring to a quote from John Ashbery about
three great themes of poetry - love, death and the weather. I knew I had it
slightly wrong, and also knew I had read it in something I had around and about
me at one stage of my life. I also thought it had been lost when I had maybe
lent it to someone and a fire had destroyed a lot of their papers. There was
nary a reference to it via online or library search,etc. I even started to think
I'd dreamed it up.
Well, blow me down, here I am with it before me. The result of a huge cleanout.
It's in a supplement to an old magazine that our 'national broadcaster', the
ABC, used to publish, called '24 Hours'. Any Aussies remember this wee journal?
But that's why the quote never turns up in an online search.
And the quote - from an interview with JA conducted by Peter Rose at the
Melbourne Writers Festival in 1992 - 'Well, I am preoccupied with the great
themes: death, love, the weather.' And he elaborates a little further, on the
weather.
So, a small thing, but I now have it. As, among other things, I am giving a
lecture on Ashbery this semester, I am happy to have a source for
quotes/elaborations that's not always used. But happier to have this before me -
so I know I slightly misremembered it, but that it was not a complete figment.
Misremembering can be a good thing. But re-membering this one is as good.
__________________________
Jill Jones
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website: www.jilljones.com.au
blog: rubystreet.blogspot.comG
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