In the form of a journal covering the period December 6, 1963, through January 10, 1964, A. R. Ammons’s long, thin poem was written on a roll of adding-machine tape, then transferred foot by foot to manuscript. He chose this method as a serious experiment in making a poem adapt to something outside itself. The tape determined both the length of the poem’s lines and when it ends. Tape for the Turn of the Year is a poem of infinite variety, blessed by the rich resources of one of this century’s greatest poets. By turns witty, serious, lyrical, and meditative, it is at once a superbly entertaining book and a significant literary achievement.

Tape for Turn of the Year

Literature & Fiction

A. R. Ammons

Poetry

W.W.Norton

<p>As the citation for the 1993 National Book Award for Poetry said, "Garbage is an epic of ideas: all life--not that of human beings alone, but of every species--is shown to be part of an ultimate reality. . . . For power of the thought and language, the poem takes its place alongside Whitman's 'Song of Myself'--an American classic."</p>

Garbage: A Poem

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

Broadstone Books is delighted to return to print this work of one of the most honored American poets of the 20th century. The poems included in this revised and expanded edition span his poetic career. Several were published after the original edition appeared in 1994 and two have not been previously collected.  "If you aren't familiar with one of the Old North State's best-known poets, The North Carolina Poems is a good introduction. If you do know Ammons' work, Alex Albright's fresh juxtapositions will give you new perspectives. And if you know a North Carolinian, or any Southerner, who's a long way from home, by all means send them this book. The images and sounds, as potent as a whiff of barbecue, will transport the wanderer home, for a time anyway.  Michael Chitwood  "Archie - few who came to know him called him by any other name - said that this collection of his poems, when it was first published in 1994, was 'a literary makeover that feels like home.' The poems added to this new edition, like those in the first, include works which refer directly to places and people the poet knew in North Carolina, but there are some which, poetically, simply feel like North Carolina (no doubt that Southern voice, that attention to place, a yearning for home), and still others which surely could have originated in any Carolina yard or woods or shore, though they came to Archie in New Jersey or New York. The poet's sometimes idiosyncratic punctuation and spelling have been retained: some poems end in colons, others with no end punctuation at all. But that's all part of the fun of reading the work of this playful and philosophical Tar Heel called by William Harmon 'the state's greatest poet ever.' But clearly, his poetry has transcended regional identity."  Alex Albright, editor, from the Afterword

North Carolina Poems

Broadstone Books

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Books by A. R. Ammons

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by A. R. Ammons. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Tape for Turn of the Year

Garbage: A Poem

North Carolina Poems