Your Name Here: Poems

About this book

I got kind of frenzied after the waiting had stopped but now am cool as a suburban garden in some lost city. When it came time for my speech I could think of nothing of course. I gave a little talk about the onion - how its flavor inspires us its shape informs our architecture. There were so many other things I wanted to say too but dandified I couldnt strut couldnt sit down for all the spit and polish. Now its your turn to say something about the wall in the garden. It can be anything. - from "Terminal" In his twentieth collection John Ashbery continues to examine the themes that have preoccupied him of late: age and its inevitable losses memories of childhood the transforming magic of dreams in daily living. Your Name Here offers souvenirs to readers inviting them to "personalize" the poems with their own associations and memories. Ashberys masterful voice is heard with renewed vigor and poigancy in these beautiful poems.