What IS the big deal with Ammons? I'd like to know as well. Those exact thoughts were rolling through my head when I saw them expressed in Tympan. I too would like to see strenuous defense. I don't find enough going on on the surface, not enough logopoeia. I do like that poem "And I said I am Ezra..." in the Norton Anthology.

***

Vallejo: I'm reading Trilce this summer. The range of registers, from colloquial to baroque, really gets to me:

Ciliado arrecife donde nací,
según refieren cronicones y pliegos
de labios familiares historiados
en segunda gracia.

The ability to appreciate words as words. That's what I don't find in Ammons.