exploring the interrelationships of various art forms & celebrating the legacy of john ashbery

exploring the interrelationships of various art forms & celebrating the legacy of john ashbery

The Flow Chart Foundation presents public programs—including performances, exhibits, discussions, and hybrid events—as well as symposium-like “Gatherings,” to foster continued exploration of poetry and the interrelationship of various art forms, develop community, as well as to deepen engagement with the work of John Ashbery. We present programs in our Flow Chart Space in Hudson, NY (348 Warren St.) and online.

A physical and virtual space for discovery and research

A physical and virtual space for discovery and research

The Ashbery Resource Center provides both a physical and virtual portal to The Flow Chart Foundation's special collections library and repository, which houses extensive print materials, artworks, objects, recordings, and digital materials related to the work of John Ashbery. We invite researchers, scholars, artists, and readers to use the collections and its resources toward generating new scholarship, artworks, and explorations. 

TOUR, Explore and read about John Ashbery’s Created Spaces

Watch videos of past poetry Exploration participatory events

Close Readings in a Virtual Space, an ongoing series of participatory virtual workshops taking place via Zoom, features some of our favorite poets leading reading-and-thinking-through sessions on (usually) single poems along with participants. Click below to visit our library of past Close Reading event videos (see Upcoming Events and Workshops for programs to come).


The New Spirit (excerpt)

I thought that if I could put it all down, that would be one way. And next the thought came to me that to leave all out, would be another, and truer, way.

clean-washed sea

The flowers were.

These are examples of leaving out. But, forget as we will, something soon comes to stand in their place. Not the truth, perhaps, but—yourself. It is you who made this, therefore you are true. But the truth has passed on 

to divide all. 

Have I awakened? Or is this sleep again? Another form of sleep? There is no profile in the massed days ahead. They are impersonal as mountains whose tops are hidden in cloud. The middle of the journey, before the sands are reversed: a place of ideal quiet.

You are my calm world. This is my happiness. To stand, to go forward into it. The cost is enormous. Too much for one life.

from Three Poems (© 1972 Estate of John Ashbery. All rights reserved. Used by arrangement with Georges Borchardt, Inc.)