A.R. Ammons was born in Whiteville, NC in 1926. He would apply a free verse style to epic-length poems, notable here are
Tape for the Turn of the Year and
Garbage. He wrote each on adding machine tape as a writer's "own distraction, improvisationally." When the tape ran out, the poem was over. Line breaks were dictated somewhat, too. A friend and I embarked on reading
Tape last year, on the day Ammons's entries started in December.
Every day, we would read the entry, making notes in a journal of our impressions. Ammons's intimate knowledge of nature and man's connections comes from growing up on a farm during the depression, and inform his work in
Tape. The act of writing about his confessional, song-of-myself bursts seemed more interactive than would be with some poets. Now we're doing
Garbage.
Here's a beginning to
Tape, lucid, but humble in his approach to the thing:
because I’ve decided, the
Muse willing,
to do this foolish
long
thin
poem, I
especially, beg
assistance:
help me!
a fool who
plays with fool things:
so fools and play
can rise in the regard of
the people,
provide serious rest
and sweet engagement
to willing minds:
and the Muse be manifest.
