<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">Street Musicians</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">John Ashbery, a Singular Poet Whose Influence Was Broad, Dies at 90 SEPT. 3, 2017</div><div class="">One died, and the soul was wrenched out</div><div class="">Of the other in life, who, walking the streets</div><div class="">Wrapped in an identity like a coat, sees on and on</div><div class="">The same corners, volumetrics, shadows</div><div class="">Under trees. Farther than anyone was ever</div><div class="">Called, through increasingly suburban airs</div><div class="">And ways, with autumn falling over everything:</div><div class="">The plush leaves the chattels in barrels</div><div class="">Of an obscure family being evicted</div><div class="">Into the way it was, and is. The other beached</div><div class="">Glimpses of what the other was up to:</div><div class="">Revelations at last. So they grew to hate and forget each other.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">So I cradle this average violin that knows</div><div class="">Only forgotten showtunes, but argues</div><div class="">The possibility of free declamation anchored</div><div class="">To a dull refrain, the year turning over on itself</div><div class="">In November, with the spaces among the days</div><div class="">More literal, the meat more visible on the bone.</div><div class="">Our question of a place of origin hangs</div><div class="">Like smoke: how we picnicked in pine forests,</div><div class="">In coves with the water always seeping up, and left</div><div class="">Our trash, sperm and excrement everywhere, smeared</div><div class="">On the landscape, to make of us what we could.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- John Ashbury</div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 17px; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">July 28, 1927 - September 3, 2017)</span></div><div class=""><br class=""></div></body></html>