Lunch Poems (City Lights Pocket Poets Series) [Paperback]

Frank O'Hara (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2001 | Series: City Lights Pocket Poets Series

Important poems by the late New York poet published in The New American Poetry, Evergreen Review, Floating Bear and stranger places.

Often this poet, strolling through the noisy splintered glare of a Manhattan noon, has paused at a sample Olivetti to type up thirty or forty lines of ruminations, or pondering more deeply has withdrawn to a darkened ware- or firehouse to limn his computed misunderstandings of the eternal questions of life, coexistence, and depth, while never forgetting to eat lunch, his favorite meal.

Product Details

• Paperback: 76 pages
• Publisher: City Lights Publishers; First Edition edition (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0872860353
• ISBN-13: 978-0872860353
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.3 x 6.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,181 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #45 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > American

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Diversions and Daydreams August 16, 2003

By R. D. Waters

Format:Paperback

The perfect introduction to the poetry of O'Hara, "Lunch Poems" is a celebration of life in New York City with art, poetry, music, friends, and of course, the movies. This book contains 'Ave Maria' with the marvelous opening lines:

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
it's true that fresh air is good for the body
but what about the soul
that grows in darkness, embossed by silvery images...

I wish I could remember what generous soul suggested that I read this little book of poems in college, but my expression of gratitude remains unfulfilled. From "Lunch Poems" I tackled the collected poems and never looked back, eventually writing my senior year thesis on O'Hara and film. This little volume, however, retains a special place in my book collection since it was my first O'Hara and my first poetry book. My copy is worn from many trips on trains and airplanes - the perfect antidote to the mind-numbing experience we call travel. To paraphrase the last line of 'A Step Away From Them':

My heart is in my pocket, it is Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars classic work that changed american poetry March 28, 2001

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

I'm only writing the obvious here because I couldn't believe people were giving this book only four stars when they give all kinds of mediocre books five. This book contains the best poem of mid-20th century America--"The Day Lady Died"--and is a quintessential example of New York School poetics. Terrific, fun, funny, exciting, moving poetry.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Beatnik Bible April 10, 2000

By ken bridgham

Format:Paperback

The best collection of poetry written after World War II that I am aware of, "Lunch Poems" brings together the high culture and low culture. O'Hara was known for hanging out with the '50s elite of celebrity and progresive painters, musicians, and actors. Yet he also had an affinity for walking the streets of New York alone at lunchtime or evening, befriending vagrants, observing day to day work and the diversity of metropolitan life. His poems are witty, profound, insightful, original, inspiring, and always unsettling the reader with his unusual observations about life. O'Hara is incredibly literate and knows his poetic heritage, but through "Lunch Poems" he remains intenseley aware of his present and the importance of what goes on around him. Between musings on Charles Baudelaire, Billie Holiday, Arthur Rimbaud, and Miles Davis, one gets the sense of a rootless, absorbing man in love with New York City, art, poetry, daily life, and transcendent experience.