Between 1952, when Frank O'Hara published his first collection of poems, and his death, in 1966, at the early age of forty, he became recognized as a quintessential American poet whose vernacular phrasing, both worldly and lyrical, beautifully told of the urban life of his generation. In addition to the contribution he made to American literature, O'Hara was a vital figure in the New York cultural scene and spent many years working at The Museum of Modern Art, where, having begun by taking a job selling postcards on the admissions desk, he ultimately became an associate curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture. And when he unexpectedly died, in an accident on the beach at Fire Island, New York, he was deeply mourned by the Museum's staff and by the New York art world.
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Frank O'Hara (1926-1966) was one of the most original and influential American poets of the twentieth century. Although he grew up in Grafton, Massachusetts, O'Hara developed into the quintessential poet of mid-century Manhattan; soon after his arrival in New York in 1951 he evolved a new kind of urban poetry that brilliantly captures the heady excitements of a golden period in the city's artistic life. O'Hara's style exudes an insistent, seductive glamour; his mercurial poems, at once open-ended and startlingly immediate, radiate an insouciant confidence that has lost none of its freshness over the decades. O'Hara was at the heart of a vibrant artistic circle that embraced fellow New York School poets John Ashbery, Barbara Guest, Kenneth Koch, and James Schuyler, as well as experimental painters such as Willem de Kooning, Larry Rivers, and Jasper Johns. Their achievements are movingly celebrated in many of his poems, while at the same time he paid loving tribute to popular idols such as James Dean and Lana Turner.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Again this evening, listen to Frank, browse his art collection, you're welcome,
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This review is from: In Memory Of My Feelings (Hardcover)
Beyond being a tribute to Frank O'Hara's ambidextrous grip on both poetry and painting, this admirable book attains another virtue: Each of his 30 poems becomes as individualized as the days of the month--as hath September April June and November--and you feel you are listening to Frank in his glory each day, each evening in his unkempt apartment, and your eyes can wander over all the hasty pictures hanging on the wall from his artist friends. And the white sheet between these poems offers you a rest, a shared bed for the night, if you're plastered. And you and Frank are not yet forty, so there's time time time, spake the Calendar.
This bound volume, printed in 2005, duplicates the content of the 1967 edition, which however comprised single-fold sheets in a slip case; each 4-page unit included a virtual blank bearing only volume page number, artist name/poem title; a spread with decorative art and poem title and text; and a concluding blank. So the bound volume preserves a lot of white space. The Museum of Modern Art decided to use only American artists. The sepia and/or black illustrations range through abstract, pictorial, and comic strip. Each artist's intention is to react to the poem and do a suggestive at-ease piece that friend Frank would like. The 3-page Afterword (1967) is by Bill Berkson, Frank's pal, so it is a warm embrace indeed. The Poems are: Ann Arbor Variations Jane Awake The eager note... Poem to James Schuyler Chez Jane Blocks (excerpt from) Second Avenue Romanze, or The Music Students Ode (June 18, 1954) Meditations in an Emergency On the Way to the San Remo Music (October 1954) To the Film Industry in Crisis Sleeping on the Wing In Memory of My Feelings A Step Away from Them Ode to Willem de Kooning Ode to Michael Goldberg('s Birth and Other Births) Image of the Buddha Preaching The Day Lady Died Rhapsody (June 30, 1959) Song (July 31, 1959) Hate is only one of many responses... Naphtha Khrushchev is coming on the right day... Variations on Pasternak's "Mein liebchen was willst du noch mehr?" Poem to Donald Allen Poem V (F) W Light clarity avocado salad For the Chinese New Year & for Bill Berkson P.S. "Digressions on Some Poems by Frank O'Hara: A Memoir" (2003) by Joe LeSueur provides rich detail on many of Frank's poems, including at least a half dozen in the MoMA volume. Plus, the naked truth about Frank's life and Joe's life. A joy to read!
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