Sign Inventory Week 8

Just Walking Around

by John Ashbery

What name do I have for you?
Certainly there is not name for you
In the sense that the stars have names
That somehow fit them. Just walking around,

An object of curiosity to some,
But you are too preoccupied
By the secret smudge in the back of your soul
To say much and wander around,

Smiling to yourself and others.
It gets to be kind of lonely
But at the same time off-putting.
Counterproductive, as you realize once again

That the longest way is the most efficient way,
The one that looped among islands, and
You always seemed to be traveling in a circle.
And now that the end is near

The segments of the trip swing open like an orange.
There is light in there and mystery and food.
Come see it.
Come not for me but it.
But if I am still there, grant that we may see each other.

1. The poem starts off with very colloquial language and a casual tone "What name do I have for You"
but ends with heightened language "Grant that we may see each other"
2. The poem is very preoccupied with naming or describing something that can neither be named or described, several references to "You" and the as in the title "just Walking around" or "Trip" are mentioned but exactly what  or who the you the speaker refers to is never mentioned, in fact it seems impossible for the speaker to do so. I counted 11 references a you or a name, yet none appears.
3.  the line endings offer up a multiple possible meanings both linear and vertical, for example "Some", "Preoccupied soul", "wander around" offer up a sense of one type of person or thing just walking around seems to be a very different subject from "Others", "lonely", "off putting" "once again" yet both of these subjects are shaped by the title an prevailing image of just walking around.
4. Each line in the poem could easily be followed by the title and each line gives a different image of a subject just walking around. "Smiling to yourself and others" just walking around is a very different subject from " It get's kind of lonely" just walking around
5. the poem show signs of creative erasure especial within the frame work of the title and endings.
6.  the first four stanza are laid out in a strict manner, four lines close pairings at the end, but the last stanza has a great deal more freedom offering up five lines, two of which are very short and one of which is only two words. "Come See it."
7. The ending stanza is startlingly high in language compared to the preceding four.
8. The poem seems to be consumed with ideas of circling or returning back to the same location or idea to only start again.
9. The poem seems to obsess on the idea that all travels are purposeless, yet travel is the most persuasive sign in the poem.
10. To err on the side of interpretation the poem seems to indicate that the journey towards something great is more important than how or even if you arrive. Further it seems to indicate by including so many possible subjects that most people are either physically of mentally "just walking around" until they find something significant and that it is something or someone else that they seek. Someone who has an ability to give themselves up as a vision if the one sought or seeking chooses to, "If I am still there, Grant that we may see each other"