Ammons' voice resonates at Sage memorial service

A display of A.R. Ammons memorabilia was on view in the late poet's Goldwin Smith Hall office April 29 as part of a memorial service in his honor. Among the poet's personal effects are a portrait of the artist, his trademark walking hat and a spool of adding machine paper of the type he used to compose his famous Tape for the Turn of the Year. Charles Harrington/University Photography

By Franklin Crawford

When the serene southern timbre of Archie Ammons' voice filled Sage Chapel Sunday afternoon, April 29, more than a few earthbound spines tingled to a supernatural frequency in their pews.

"Am I coming through all right?" the voice of Ammons asked with Godlike clarity, as if running a sound check from heaven -- or playing a practical joke -- during the memorial held in his honor. Many heads in the audience of more than 300 swiftly nodded in assent -- and a goosebumpy tremblor of nervous laughter followed.

The Ammons voiceover was sampled from a Cornell Mind and Memory seminar recorded in 1997. Professor James McConkey introduced the recording, which included a reading of In Memoriam Mae Noblitt and a rendition of "Shall We Gather at the River," sung by Ammons. Although McConkey had warned of a couple asides from Ammons, few in Sage Chapel were prepared for the offhand immediacy of the poet's voice. And the question itself, "Am I coming through all right," was as simple and profound and appropriate to the moment as Ammons ever was. It was a question originally posed to that Mind and Memory audience of 1997. On that day, Ammons was introduced, as he was on Sunday, by McConkey, the Goldwin Smith Professor of English Literature emeritus.

McConkey was among a dozen friends, colleagues and former students who paid tribute to Ammons by reciting selected poems and through other forms of praise and reflection on the remarkable poet's life and by letting the poet speak for himself. Ammons died in February. He was 75.

Jack Lewis, former head of Cornell United Religious Work, gave the call to celebration and then introduced President Hunter Rawlings, who spoke of the event as both a separation and a celebration. Rawlings charted Ammons' life from a farm in North Carolina to his first volume of poems, Ommateum, which Ammons published out of his own pocket for $480 in 1955; 100 copies were made, of which only 16 were sold in the first five years. Rawlings described how Ammons arrived at Cornell in 1964, the only Cornell English faculty member without a Ph.D.; within six years he held an endowed chair. Ammons went on to win virtually every major prize in American poetry, including two National Book Awards and published nearly 30 books.

"Archie Ammons stands today as one of the great poets of the 20th century," Rawlings said, and in closing comments introduced Alice Fulton, MFA '82, a former student of Ammons who, Rawlings announced, has just become a Cornell professor of poetry.

"I have to say it feels odd to be here without Archie's presence -- he was the spirit of this place for me and for others -- and yet I know he is present today in our hearts and minds," Fulton said.

Among other readers were a host of Cornell faculty, both active and retired, and staff: Roald Hoffmann, professor of chemistry; M.H. Abrams, professor of English emeritus; English professors Roger S. Gilbert, Phyllis Janowitz and Kenneth McClane; and C.A. Carlson, managing director of Cornell Cinema. Don Randel, former Cornell provost and president of the University of Chicago, also read. Phyllis Ammons and other surviving members of the Ammons family were present for the service.

Marianne Marsh, administrative manager for the English department, invited those assembled for a short "pilgrimage" to Ammons' office in 239 Goldwin Smith Hall. More than 100 people paid a visit to their friend's old haunt. A reception also was held in the A.D. White House.