I realized almost immediately after I posted that Wheelwright was one of the oddballs in Ashbery's book. Ashbery has these choice words about him:

"Even where I can not finally grasp his meaning, which is much of the time, I remain convinced by the extraordinary power of his language as it flashes by on its way from somewhere to somewhere else. At times it seems like higher mathematics; I can sense the 'elegance' of his solutions without being able to follow the steps by which he arrives at them."

That's fantastic, as far as I'm concerned. A nice way to think of poems, or certain poems--language flashing by on its way from somewhere to somewhere else.

Joe, do us a favor and post a Wheelwright poem if you have time. And happy birthday birthday boy.

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/wheelwright/bio.htm