Flow Chart Quotes

“So one can lose a good idea
by not writing it down, yet by losing it one can have it: it nourishes other asides
it knows nothing of, would not recognize itself in, yet when the negotiations
are terminated, speaks in the acts of that progenitor, and does
recognize itself, is grateful for not having done so earlier.”
― John Ashbery, Flow Chart

“O paradise, to lie in the hammock with one’s book and drink,
not hearing the murmur of consternation as it moves progressively
up the decibel scale. Yet I see you are uncertain where to locate me:
here I am. And I’ve done more thinking about you than you perhaps realize,
yes, a sight more than you’ve done about me. Which reminds me:
when are we going to get together? I mean really—not just for a
drink and a smoke, but really
invade each other’s privacy in a significant way that will make sense
and later amends to both of us for having done so, for I am
short of the mark despite my bluster and my swaggering,
have no real home and no one to inhabit it except you
whom I am in danger of losing permanently as a bluefish slips off
the deck of a ship, as a tuna flounders, but say, you know all that.
What kind of a chump do you think I am, anyway? I would like your
attention, not just your eyes and face. I would like to tell you
how much I love you. I’m a sap for trying, but down deep
in the bowels of the ship we hear something, don’t you agree, that
tells us where we went off course and what we must do to
get back on it only now it’s too late”
― John Ashbery, Flow Chart