| FRANK O'HARA
'Grace to be born and to live as variously as possible' |
| Frank, poet and curator (at
MOMA), was a galvanising influence on the New York art
scene of the 50s and 60s. His chatty, charming,
meticulously controlled poems were among the first to
bring pop culture into the same literary milieu as high
art. His 'I do this, I do that' poems capture and convey
the sights, sounds and states of the city he called
'Sodom on the Hudson'. Some of the best of these are
gathered in Lunch
Poems, a masterpiece of wit and candour. Described as New York's Apollinaire, Frank filled his writing with some of the leading figures in post-war American -- and in turn was portrayed by them. His charmed circle included John Ashbery, Bill Berkson, Edwin Denby, Jane Frielicher, Mike Goldberg, Kenneth Koch, Joe LeSueur, Larry Rivers, James Schuyler, Patsy Southgate, and Frank's lover, the dancer Vincent Warren. Although he published comparatively little in his lifetime, the posthumously issued Collected Poems is a substantial and extraordinary volume. Frank O'Hara was killed in a freak accident on Fire Island in 1966. He was just forty years old. (Text adapted from the programme notes to OnYour Nerve, CCA, Glasgow, 21st-22nd May, 1997: thanks Donny) Frank and decent links are hard to find (I haven't happened on any indecent ones yet, though I suspect they exist). By decent I mean links that are a fifth of bourbon as exciting as his poems, as opposed to ploddy/hagiographic/scholarly ones. You might as well try the following as not: http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/English_Literature/us_poetry/O'Hara/index/html |
 Find out why at Projects, OR, just plunge on to Donny or David. It's no good asking me, I'm out to Lunch. Just pick me out a lobster. |
