John Ashbery--Poetry and Visual Art

Last week at the NYU Creative Writers House, I attended a discussion event with poet John Ashbery, in conversation with poets Bianca Stone and Ben Pease. The two-hour discussion touched on comics and poetry, ekphrastic poetry, referential poetry, influences and visual art, long poems, and the mixing of high and low culture.

John Ashbery (right) reads from "Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror"Ashbery read an excerpt from "Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror." For background on this poem see "Ashbery, Parmigianino, and the Convex Mirror." Ashbery said that as a child and young student he'd dreamed of being a visual artist but switched to poetry. He spoke of his background in writing art criticism and the differences between writing a poem about a painting versus writing art criticism:

"In writing poetry, the seeing happens through writing; writing a poem is making something that's not there, whereas writing about art is a critique of something already made." 

Later he read from "Daffy Duck in Hollywood," his most referential poem. Regarding the inclusion of references in poems that may be obscure or unfamiliar to a reader, Ashbery said:

"You can't be assured of total mutual comprehension between the reader and the writer. But if you think about that, it can keep you from writing a single line. So I don't."

Ashbery's poetry often reads like a visual collage, and regarding his process of choosing references he said:

"You just get into a writing mode. I don't know why I choose these references and not others. But I find it exhilarating to escape from one reference to the next."

On writing long poems Ashbery said:

"There is a built in layer of anxiety--you're always wondering if you'll be able to get back into the mood you were in when you started the poem."

Intersections of visual art and writing always intrigue me and this conversation with John Ashbery gave me plenty to mull and had me immediately seeing new poems.