Burnout in the Overshoot

Ammons, A. R.

Primary Category: Literature / Poetry

Genre: Poem

Annotated by:
Coulehan, Jack
  • Date of entry: Jun-26-1995

Summary

It is autumn. The "first cool spell" has come and made its changes, but life continues: "there's something besides // death and nothingness / even if winter is coming." You can never arrive at death. As you approach death, you diminish, so that in the end, "nothing is equal to nothing."

Commentary

One of A. R. Ammons' spare, autumnal lyrics. A short poem about dying and what remains: the living in the journey toward death.

Primary Source

Sumerian Vistas: Poems

Publisher

W. W. Norton

Place Published

New York

Edition

1987