Something Close to Music

This collection pairs poetry and art writings of John Ashbery (1927–2017)—a prolific poet and art critic—with playlists from his personal library. It gives readers an intimate look at his works, placing poems from his later collections in conversation with contemporary art writing and music recordings from his library. Poets often describe Ashbery's work as ekphrastic, in that it allows for diverse perspectives, complex textures, and disjunct phrases to explore multiple narratives and pathways of meaning.

In Mónica de la Torre's introduction, she explores the connection between the three muses of music, art, and poetry in this ekphrastic book project and how readers can benefit from this experience.