Life & Wisdom Quote by A. R. Ammons

Ammons is praising a quiet revolution that sounds, at first blush, merely logistical: poets taking charge of getting their work into the world. But the real charge in “wonderful change” is aesthetic and political. He’s implying that the old gatekeeping model - where magazines, publishers, and a handful of tastemakers decide what counts - is no longer the only pathway to legitimacy. Poetry, in his framing, has shifted from being an institution’s product to being a poet’s project.

The phrase “if not directly by the person” nods to DIY without romanticizing the lone genius. Ammons immediately pivots to “the enterprise of the poet himself,” a business word that smuggles in a bigger idea: art-making now includes infrastructure. Editing, printing, distribution, networks, readings - these are not distractions from the poem but part of its ecosystem. When he adds “working with his friends,” he’s sketching a parallel economy built on camaraderie and mutual labor rather than corporate scale. It’s a vision of poetry as community practice, not just individual expression.

Contextually, Ammons came up in a mid-century literary world where little magazines mattered, university presses rose, and poets often relied on small circles to circulate work. His comment anticipates today’s creator logic - newsletters, small presses, self-publishing - but with a poet’s emphasis on fellowship over branding. The subtext is both liberating and slightly wary: autonomy is “wonderful,” yet it also means poets must become their own institutions to survive.