Rivers and Mountains by John Ashbery.

The opening of John Ashbery’s “Rivers and Mountains” (“On the secret map the assassins/ Cloistered,”) very well might cause the apprehensive reader to declare, “The map is not the territory.” Indeed, that is part of the point, and the reader attempting to comprehend “Rivers and Mountains” from the preconception that it will be either a coherent whole or a representation equivalent solely to the sum of its parts will find the work daunting, if not ultimately frustrating.