Frank O’Hara was part of the New York School of Poets and was engaged in other artistic pursuits. They included music, dance, and Expressionist painting. He worked at the Museum of Modern Art and curated nineteen exhibitions. His intelligent work has only been widely recognized since his death in 1966.
‘Steps’ by Frank O’Hara is one of the poet’s many pieces that explores life in New York City. It is written in his characteristic style and is filled with allusions that are sometimes hard to interpret.
How funny you are today New York
like Ginger Rogers in Swingtime
and St. Bridget’s steeple leaning a little to the left
In ‘Ave Maria,’ Frank O’Hara urges mothers to let their children enjoy the guilty pleasures of adolescence. Otherwise, he contends, their kids will become resentful, stunted adults.
Mothers of America
let your kids go to the movies!
get them out of the house so they won’t know what you’re up to
‘Homosexuality’ by Frank O’Hara looks at the way the homosexuals were treated in the 1960s, looking at ideas of judgment and acceptance.
So we are taking off our masks, are we, and keeping
our mouths shut? as if we'd been pierced by a glance!
The song of an old cow is not more full of judgment
than the vapors which escape one's soul when one is sick;
‘Easter’ by Frank O’Hara is a surrealistic take on the contrasting elements of life and death, and the images these forces can spawn.
‘Having a Coke with You’ by O’Hara celebrates love’s simple joys over grand art and places, valuing shared moments.
is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne
or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona
partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian
‘Meditations in an Emergency’ appears in the book of poetry by Frank O’Hara, first published in 1957. This bitterly humorous piece deals with the theme of unrequited love.
Am I to become profligate as if I were a blonde? Or religious as if I were French?
O’Hara’s ‘Poem [Lana Turner has collapsed!]’ humorously intertwines daily life with the drama of Lana Turner’s collapse in his poem.
Lana Turner has collapsed!
I was trotting along and suddenly
it started raining and snowing
and you said it was hailing
Frank O’Hara wrote ‘The Day Lady Died’ in memory of the jazz singer Billie Holiday. She passed away from complications due to liver diseases in July 1959.
It is 12:20 in New York a Friday
three days after Bastille day, yes
it is 1959 and I go get a shoeshine
because I will get off the 4:19 in Easthampton
‘Why I Am Not a Painter’ by Frank O’Hara is a poem inspired by O’Hara’s experience with painters in New York. It details an interaction with Michael Goldberg.
I am not a painter, I am a poet.
Why? I think I would rather be
a painter, but I am not. Well,
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