Mar 19 2009
∞
April 22, 2007: For Grace, After A Party, Frank O’Hara
For Grace, After A Party
Frank O’Hara
You do not always know what I am feeling.
Last night in the warm spring air while I was
blazing my tirade against someone who doesn't
interest
me, it was love for you that set me
afire,
and isn't it odd? for in rooms full of
strangers my most tender feelings
writhe and
bear the fruit of screaming. Put out your hand,
isn't there
an ashtray, suddenly, there? beside
the bed? And someone you love enters the room
and says wouldn't
you like the eggs a little
different today?
And when they arrive they are
just plain scrambled eggs and the warm weather
is holding.
[I read something recently that said O’Hara and poets like him did a lot to ” counter the mournful tones of so much 20th century poetry”. It’s nice to read poetry that seems happy to be alive.]
More like this:
V.R. Lang, Frank O’Hara
A Step Away From Them, Frank O’Hara
Meditations in an Emergency, Frank O’Hara
A year ago: Wild Geese, Mary Oliver
Two years ago: A Brief for the Defense, Jack Gilbert
