Born July 28, 1927, John Ashbery is easily one of America's most recognized poets. The New York native has won virtually every major poetry award though he is considered one of the more controversial poets to be so selected.

Ashbery was born in Rochester, NY, but was educated at the prestigious Deerfield Academy. While at the Academy, Ashbery was inspired by the works of W.H. Auden and Dylan Thomas and soon began writing poetry of his own.

His first publication came in "Poetry Magazine," though his piece was published under the name of the classmate who submitted the poem without Ashbery's knowledge. At the same time, Ashbery took weekly art classes from age eleven through fifteen. Painting became his first major interest, leading him to consider a career as an artist.

Ashbery graduated from Harvard where he wrote his senior thesis on W.H. Auden. While at Harvard he befriended writer Frank O'Hara and took classes with Robert Bly. The poet then went to Columbia University where he earned his masters degree in 1951.

Ashbery received a Fulbright Fellowship and moved to France where he lived for nearly ten years, until 1965. While overseas, he lived with the French poet Pierre Martory and worked as the art editor for the European edition of the "New York Herald Tribune."

Upon his return to the US, Ashbery worked an art critic for both "New York" and "Newsweek" magazines. He later served as editor for "Partisan Review" and began a lengthy teaching career, first at Brooklyn College and later at Bard College.

Ashbery's list of awards includes the Yale Younger Poets Prize for his poetry collection, "Some Trees," published in 1956. His early poems reflect the influences of Auden and Wallace Stevens, as well as many French surrealists. During his time in France, Ashbery published two collections, the controversial "The Tennis-Court Oath" and "Rivers and Mountains."

Recognition came in droves during the 1970s when Ashbery moved from being an obscure avant-garde experimentalist to being generally recognized as one of America's most important poets. His "Three Poems," published in 1973 would bring him great recognition and then his 1975 work, "Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror," resulted in Ashbery being awarded all three major American poetry prizes, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book and the National Book Critics Circle awards.

Ashbery's poetry has been described as free-flowing, using extensive linguistic play often with a touch of humor. His work at times reveals a trend towards conventional verse though with "Tennis Court Oath" he began playing with form and formlessness.

Ashbery's art criticisms have also been collected in various publications and he wrote one novel, "A Nest of Ninnies" with poet James Schulyer. He also has published a book of lectures in 2000 as well as a larger collection of his many prose writings in 2005.

Just Walking Around

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.