john ashbery on MTV
The New York Times News Service wire moved a story this week about MTV's first poet laureate on MtvU, its college-campus network, and I have to say I heartily approve of their choice.
Ashbery is, after all, my favorite poet. I even drove to see him read, along with Kurt Vonnegut at an event hosted by George Plimpton at SUNY Albany six or seven years back. (See, I don't only watch TV.)
The headline the Times sent with the story was "80-year-old poet for the MTV generation," as if a writer's age has anything to do with his art being accessible -- look at the Shakespeare in the Courts program, or any high school English curriculum.
Excerpts of Ashbery's poems will be read on the MtvU network and on www.mtvu.com, and I for once can't wait to see them.
I'll leave you with my own favorite excerpt from my favorite poem:
So -- if you want to come with me,
or just pull at my sleeve, let them make that discovery.
Summer won't end in your lap,
nor are the stars more casual than usual.
Peace, quiet, a dictionary -- it was so important,
yet at the end nobody had any time for any of it.
It was as if all of it had never happened,
my shoelaces were untied, and -- am I forgetting anything?
-- from "And the stars were shining," John Ashbery