"Voyage in the Blue" Engagement #3
October 10, 2022
And so, into our darkness life seeps
Where have I been for the first few stanzas of this here poem? It seems wholly new now. Where’d the narrative with the three figures in the boat go? Where’d the river go? Who are the mind-readers? What does a festal day look like? What does that entail? Why no comma after darkness? Does Ashbery drink tea or coffee? If coffee, black or with sugar? Where does Ashbery write? What kind of pen does he use? Does he write longhand? He must’ve written this longhand. But you feel no labor. How long did Ashbery spend writing the initial draft of this here poem? How long on the editing? How much editing was required? Is he a figure on the boat? Who is he addressing? Does he know? Does he write at night? Does this here poem take place at night? Questions of temporality. Who must we avoid? How were the houses ruined? How does one see with their teeth? Bristly gold stars. Am I to listen more carefully? Is that a jab at the audience? Imagine a time where colors no longer mattered. What facts would be included on the long list of important facts? What kind of dog is it? Is it even a real dog or rather, an expression (i.e., the dog days of summer)? What limited the decision making of the people? What grows in the orchards? How old was Ashbery when he crafted this here poem? Is the poem indicative of a melancholy about aging? Or is it about time passing in a broader sense? Is it about time at all? It is civilization that counts. Who is the fool that emerges from the forest, shouting? What does he shout? Why does he shout? Who is in the distant castle? What is the castle? The essence of the castle I mean. What object(s) might it contain? Must the castle be destroyed? Is the castle nefarious? Is the castle ambivalent? Am I ambivalent? Am I apathetic? Why am I apathetic? I don’t believe I am apathetic here. There is just so much to know. Must we come to know this poem? What does the poem know? What does Ashbery know? Ashbery knows what’s in the castle. The function of time in this here poem’s logic. He knows these things. Ashbery’s thoughts on water? Lived near water? Near trees? Near a forest or two? A dog? Did he have a dog? What was cut out? What, if anything, was added? Written in one go? It just might be written in one go. How did Ashbery get to be so good? Is he good? What did he read? What did he read right before writing this? And after? After? Is there an after to the poem? Does he know where it might go? Is the poem in motion? Does it work toward something? Does the volume work toward something? Is Voyage in conversation with any of the other poems in the volume? Is Ashbery self-conscious here? Why might that be? Relation to the title poem? Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. Is this a portrait of sorts? Is every poem a portrait? Shall I…
For where a mirage has once been, life must be.