News at Eleven: [John Ashbery] writes most of his poems

in one sitting, but even the longer work is associative. He tries to write at least once a week, but it doesn’t always work out. He’ll begin by writing down words he’s been thinking about, or words that seem to have taken on a different meaning than usual.

“I basically start writing without any preconceived notion of what I’m going to do and then do it,” he told me.

This is how he ends up with lines that can be read again and again and still not give off any clear meaning.

from The New York Observer: The Meaning of All This: Talking to John Ashbery About His Past, Present and Future

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