I’m Not a Fan of Frank O’Hara

I’m sorry – I’m just not a fan of Frank O’Hara. I tried. This is the second or third time I’ve tried to read Lunch Poems, but no luck. So many, many people I know are going to want to kick my ass. I know he’s a big name, and a writer many folks admire… but I just don’t see what the fuss is all about.

Perhaps I need to read some of his other works. "Lunch Poems" was supposedly written during his lunch breaks, where he stopped at various stores and used their typewriters to compose some quick lines. The most well known (at least to me) is his poem "The Day Lady Died." From what I’ve heard and been told by others, the poem moves quickly, its pace causing a certain breathlessness in the reader as the lines and words move one into the other. But looking at some of O’Hara’s other poems, a lot of them seem to do that. I like "The Day Lady Died" mainly because of how it was introduced to me, and how someone else taught me to read it.

Something like the poem "On Rachmaninoff’s Birthday" just stupefies me. I’m confounded, and can’t make any sense of it.

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  1. yes, the new york school- and john ashbery is another member- is, like a lot of modern art- something that lasts because critics try to figure it out and perpetuate the “legends”- so calledit’s like the emperor has no clothes and- i think these poets would freely admit they’re “pulling our noses”- but then why do they expect to b published or honored- as ashbery is, for example?me, i expect more from poetry than infant crib crawlsi mean- ez pound meant something serious when he said “make it new”…but not this- this stuff is mistaken for what pound meantdave eberhardt, baltimore, md

    david eberhardt Reply


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