Poem of the Week

This week's poem is presented by Christine Choi. It is a John Ashbery piece entitled "The Picture of Little J.A. in a Prospect of Flowers." Enjoy!

THE PICTURE OF LITTLE J. A.
IN A PROSPECT OF FLOWERS

He was spoilt from childhood
by the future, which he mastered
rather early and apparently
without great difficulty.
BORIS PASTERNAK

I

Darkness falls like a wet sponge
And Dick gives Genevieve a swift punch
In the pajamas. “Aroint thee, witch.”
Her tongue from previous ecstasy
Releases thoughts like little hats.

“He clap’d me first during the eclipse.
Afterwards I noted his manner
Much altered. But he sending
At that time certain handsome jewels
I durst not seem to take offence.”

In a far recess of summer
Monks are playing soccer.

II

So far is goodness a mere memory
Or naming of recent scenes of badness
That even these lives, children,
You may pass through to be blessed,
So fair does each invent his virtue.

And coming from a white world, music
Will sparkle at the lips of many who are

Beloved. Then these, as dirty handmaidens
To some transparent witch, will dream
Of a white hero’s subtle wooing,
And time shall force a gift on each.

That beggar to whom you gave no cent
Striped the night with his strange descant.

III
Yet I cannot escape the picture
Of my small self in that bank of flowers:
My head among the blazing phlox
Seemed a pale and gigantic fungus.
I had a hard stare, accepting

Everything, taking nothing,
As though the rolled-up future might stink
As loud as stood the sick moment
The shutter clicked. Though I was wrong,

Still, as the loveliest feelings

Must soon find words, and these, yes

Displace them, so I am not wrong

In calling this cosmic version of myself
The true one. For as change is horror,

Virtue is really stubbornness

And only in the light of lost words
Can we imagine our rewards.