Raw Material

Where do poems come from? Enquiring minds often ask questions like this of John Ashbery, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning poet who spoke at the Salomon Center in November as part of the President's Lecture Series. The answer often comes as a surprise. "I was eating sushi the other day," Ashbery said in introducing his poem "Snow." "The wrapper had a short line, then a longer one, then a short one - and so on, with a long sloppy line at the end. I decided to write a poem that looked like that."