Selected Poems

John Ash's "The Goodbyes" won the Poetry Book Society Choice, 1982, and "Disbelief" won the Poetry Book Society Choice, 1987.

This work draws on John Ash's four collections and is virtually a "Collected Poems". Among contemporary British poets he is known for his wit, formal ambition and his Byzantine range.Writing of his fourth collection in the same review, Richard Tillinghast said: 'John Ash is a greatly gifted poet who moves easily from the hieratic to the demotic.' And John Ashbery has spoken of his poetry as 'resonant with gorgeous imagery that distracts one from the super-lucid, rational argument that quietly continues to assert itself. It seems both familiar and strange, noble and funny, romantic and level-headed.' Among contemporary British poets he is distinguished for his wit, his formal and thematic ambition, and his Byzantine range.