With Ardor We Regard YOUR Paw!

I cannot think of a better way to get our feet wet in the swollen river that is John Ashbery than with this gymnastic display of poetic interpretation, courtesy of the thoughtful Ana. She writes: "I should like to help inaugurate the month of Ashbery with the attached rendering of the first stanza of Glazunoviana:

The man with the red hat
And the polar bear, is he here too?
The window giving on shade,
Is that here too?
And all the little helps,
My initials in the sky,
The hay of an arctic summer night?

It features Ashbery as a polar teddy with a red hat, killing, as it were, two birds with one stone. I have skipped the window, since I didn't have enough space. But you will notice his initials in the sky of the arctic summer night. Feeling bad about drawing such a dubious picture of the great poet, for whom I feel only ardor, I also include myself as a 'little help' aka the teddy's tag. With ardor I regard his paw."

Wonderful work, Ana--when the Lord comes down on his little cloud and tells me to start fattening my eyes for the slaughter, I will gorge them on this fluffy body until the knife is raised.