RIP John Ashbery

[Joseph Tracy]

 This was written by Rosalie Purvis a dear friend and  talented playwright who works on the theater faculty at Cornell.

It's hard for me to believe the world has lost John Ashbery. He guided and taught me -- and so many others who ate and breathed and dreamed poetry in our Bard College days -- how to find our respective poetic paths. He taught me how to catch unexpected changes of verbal tide and the elegance of urgency that, rather than bellows orders, inspires rapt attention to whispers. He encouraged wit that grew through the cracks of dense thoughts. He would sometimes stamp a new poem with a stamp that said: "poem". He transformed the course of my life with his insights and his work. I send him my deepest gratitude.-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l