Wakefulness: Poems

By: John Ashbery

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Synopsis: A collection of poems that recall, in their powerful transformations of language, the moment of clarity that arrives upon waking from a dreamOne of John Ashbery&’s most critically acclaimed collections since his iconic works of the mid-1970s, Wakefulness was praised in 1999 for its beauty and alertness. In these pages, the great poet is at once luring the reader into a vivid dream and waking us up with a jolt of recognition. In poems such as &“The Village of Sleep,&” &“Shadows in the Street,&” and &“Wakefulness,&” dreams, sleeplessness, and other transformational and liminal states are revealed to be part of a ceaseless continuity of accelerating changes. Even the most seemingly familiar phrases (&“stop me if you&’ve heard this one&”) are ever in the process of changing their meanings, especially in Ashbery&’s hands. And distinctive new realities are created constantly by the power of words, in strange and beautiful combinations. With every word and every line, Ashbery questions the real and summons a new reality.