Frank O'Hara

thumb|Frank O'Hara Francis Russell O'Hara (June 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American poet who, along with John Ashbery, James Schuyler and Kenneth Koch, was a key member of what was known as the New York School of poetry. O'Hara's association with the Museum of Modern Art and painters like Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and others became a source of inspiration for his highly original poetry. Quotes I went back to work and wrote a poem for this person. While I was writing it I was realizing that if I wanted to I could use the telephone instead of writing the poem, and so Personism was born. It's a very exciting movement which will undoubtedly have lots of adherents. It puts the poem squarely between the poet and the person, Lucky Pierre style, and the poem is correspondingly gratified. The poem is at last between two persons instead of two pages. Personism: A Manifesto, from The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara (1972). Now I am quietly waiting forthe catastrophe of my personalityto seem beautiful again,and interesting, and modern.The country is grey andbrown and white in trees,snows and skies of laughteralways diminishing, less funnynot just darker, not just grey.It may be the coldest day ofthe year, what does he think ofthat? I mean, what do I? And if I do,perhaps I am myself again. Mayakovsky, st. 4, from Meditations in an Emergency (1957). Andalways embrace things, people earthsky stars, as I do, freely and withthe appropriate sense of space. A True Account of Talking to the Sun at Fire Island (l. 64-67) (1958). The beauty of America, neither cool jazz nor devoured Egyptianheroes, lies inlives in the darkness I inhabit in the midst of sterile millions. Ode: Salute to the French Negro Poets (l. 34-36) (1960). It is even inprose, I am a real poet. My poemis finished and I haven't mentionedorange yet It's twelve poems, I callit oranges. Why I Am Not a Painter (l. 24-28) (1976). Quotes about Frank O'Hara People I read a lot to my son were people like Robert Bly and Lucille Clifton, Frank O’Hara for some reason, Chinese poems, Japanese poems. Naomi Shihab Nye Interview with On Being (2016) External links Frankohara.org (official home page) FrankOHara.com (unofficial home page) Articles on Frank O'Hara at Poetry X Modern American Poetry Crossroads: Tribute to Frank O'Hara Poems by Frank O'Hara Review of O’Hara’s Why I Am Not A Painter Academy of American Poets Jacket Magazine's Frank O'Hara feature Frank O'Hara Directory and Selected Poems Thomas Dreher: Traces: "whatdoyoumeanandhowdoyoumeanit". Frank O'Hara: The 'New York School' between Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art Caleb Crain, "Frank O'Hara's 'Fired' Self," American Literary History, 1997 Frank O'Hara's Photo & Gravesite Category:1926 births Category:1966 deaths Category:20th-century poets from the United States Category:Gay poets Category:Art critics Category:Critics from the United States Category:Poets from Baltimore Category:Poets from Massachusetts