Publisher's Synopsis
Webster's Dictionary defines a 'flow-chart' as a 'schematic diagram...showing the progress of materials through the various stages of a manufacturing process'.
In this Flow Chart, a book-length poem, John Ashbery charts the ebb and flow of life perceived - and perhaps lived - through the almost sacred art of self-reflection, What emerges is a procession of tones, moods and passions, meditation with no predetermined conclusion, journey with no firm destination. His materials include the stuff of every-day reality and every-night dream; dialogues with self, soul and an unnamed 'significant other'; and a stream of consciousness that illuminates in flashes the personal metaphysic that is the poem's undrelying subject.
