freaking A

I am swooning my way through Ashbery, swanning, swimming. Shapiro is fantastically subtle, describing the most elusive effects simply perfectly. I identify with this very much:

For Ashbery, the poem remains, it is true, as very much a parody of sentiment, but this wistful mannered replica of feeling is something which the poet finally affirms. While it is importnat to see that the poet is not utterly committed to a psychological narration, a three-dimensional Thou, it is equally important to sense the only slightly veiled desire to somhow get ‘out’ of the literary framework and address a ‘you’ more or less ‘naturally.’ But this is impossible, and Ashbery knows it more richly than anyone. … the playful desire for the archaic form of a ‘love sonnet’ reproduces, no matter how percussively decorated with clumsy effects, something of the feeling-tone of a positive mode.

–from John Ashbery, An Introduction to the Poetry, by David Shapiro

Safety in parody, as safety in numbers. Safety in the weather, in electronics, in July, safety in sentiment, the road, the paycheck.

The scorching air of freedom whistles past my ears. The air, the voiceless place of A sans parody.