Frank O’Hara’s poetry

This week I chose Frank O’Hara to write about and I imitated him in my modeling poem. I really like his idea that poems should not contain any abstract or philosophical allusions (I think this way it is easier to understand it) and the idea that poetry should be amusement. In his lunch poems we can see the flurry of images and the cityscape of New York. In his poem entitled “A Step Away from Them” we can see the typical ingredients of a lunch poem. Even the first line tells us that. After this comes the description of the city itself. Basically he is just going around in the city and writes down what he can see. First we have some construction workers with their yellow helmets, then arrives the pop culture with Coca-Cola and a very subtle allusion to Marilyn Monroe (the flipping skirts). He even notices some cats playing in the sawdust. He sees the typical yellow New York City cabs and describes the weather (which was hot that day). After the exact designation of the place where he is (Time Square), he notices the famous “puffing billboard” which is also part of the pop culture. Racial issues and the question of integration became more and more important during the 50s, especially that Blacks are important “components” of the New York cityscape. In the poem a “Negro” stands down the street, representing his race. Then comes a girl, then some sudden honks, and we get the exact time and date of that day. This is quite unusual, in general poets do not give these data to their readers, but as this is a lunch poem, we can understand that. O’Hara’s great appreciation for neon appears in the poem, this must have been a new experience for people that time; he appreciated it even in daylight, when it cannot shine as bright as at night. He stops for a cheeseburger (pop culture again), when his mind gives out the names of some famous people, sort of randomly. We cannot even really understand how these names come here and what must be their significance in the course of the poem but this is what makes this poem a lunch poem, it is almost a stream of consciousness by Virginia Woolf. The representatives of another important ethnic group are to be noticed: some Puerto Ricans arrive down the avenue. And here comes the sudden change in the tone of the poem: the poet leaves his happy and easy-going style and becomes sad and deceived. He is talking about deaths, the deaths of some artists, artists like he is. After this change and his sorrowful thoughts, he has to come back to his real life, to his work. He even tells us he has papaya juice in his hands and a volume of poetry by Pierre Reverdy.
In “Personal Poem” we almost have the same pattern, as it is also a lunch poem. Here as well we have many places and people mentioned and the racial question comes up here as well (the handshake with LeRoi).

Modeling Poem #2

This time I chose Frank O’Hara to imitate. I like his poetry as it is “soft”, easy to understand and not fully overloaded with classical images and allusions. I like his idea that poetry should be amusement and it should not be abstract or philosophical. These characteristics made me easier to imitate him. As it is supposed to be a lunch poem, I put that fact into the poem as well. I even indicated that that time O’Hara worked for the Museum of Modern Art in New York and “he” wrote this poem during one of his museum breaks. Basically, I tried to put together everything he must have been thought and seen in New York in 1958 (I just made up the year); the same way he did it in his poetry. So I avoided every abstract or philosophical allusion and tried to focus on the amusement part of poetry and the whirling of images and names. Knowing his general appreciation for neon lights and every kind of fancy billboard, I put the “luminous neon advertisements” beside the indication of that hot summer day and the shining sun, showing that both of them do the same: give us hot. I even told it was 85 degrees, this must have been seen by a huge street thermometer down Madison Avenue. Now came the construction workers together with their helmets, like leitmotivs of his poetry. To give the whole a bit more advanced surrealistic ambiance, I connected the workers’ hats with the expensive and fashionable hats found in the exclusive San Francisco boutiques. Thus the inner and the outer world can kind of blend in the mind of the poet. Not only does he describe what he sees but he also tries to find connections between these things and his life experience, past memories of people and places. The next moment he notices the sign of a subway station, so just comes down to travel by it, but then he changes his mind and goes up. This can represent a possible roaming in a big city which is like a labyrinth in many cases, and where we have so many offered opportunities and possibilities. Another huge street billboard may show the time (probably the one showing the temperature), he must have been noticed that, so I put it into the poem just like the exact day of it. Speaking about racial issues, integration, segregation, different races, ethnicities, I put a “Negro” cab driver into the poem, who is not a very surprising character of the New York cityscape. The poet must have seen his delightful face, so he remarked it. This poem was “written” in 1958, when racial issues were treated differently than now, that is why I mentioned LeRoi and the handshake, which must have been shocked many people. I wanted another important minority group to be present in the poem; that is why I mentioned the “Chicanos” who are also significant components of the cityscape. I imagined them as laughing and funny people, probably having a break—just like the poet. Paul Claudel is briefly mentioned, maybe O’Hara knew him (he died in 1955), and I just referred to him because O’Hara mentioned a lot of French poets in his poems. The pop culture is present by his cheeseburger and Coke (and of course by the neon advertisements). Even though he avoided philosophy in his poetry, I could not help mentioning it in the last line (as he did that anyway in “A Step Away from Them”), referring to the brevity of life, connecting it to the “brevity” of the cheeseburger and the Coke.

Modeling Poem #2

Frank O’Hara, Poem

I work for a museum but now this is my lunch hour,
So I just go around in the city. This is supposed to be my recreation.
It is a hot summer, 85 degrees. The sun is shining just like the luminous neon advertisements.

While taking off my jacket I notice some construction workers down Madison Avenue,
Wearing their usual helmets with many different colors: red, yellow, silver…
I have seen similar hats in a San Francisco fashion boutique- but fashion is bizarre and capricious

I feel like traveling by subway, so I descend to the station, then I make up my mind and go up.
I cannot see many people down the avenue as it is 12:15 PM of an average Tuesday.
A Negro cab driver is getting on his car, he seems to be delighted- he must have had a good client.

This cab driver reminds me of LeRoi, once we were shaking hands and many people were shocked.
A group of laughing Chicanos is approaching me, giving the avenue a funny atmosphere.
Maybe they have lunch break too. I wonder what Paul Claudel may think about them.
But alas, I have already finished my cheeseburger and drunk my Coke and I have to go back to work.
Will life pass away as quickly as my lunch hour?

1958

Randall Jarrell's poetry

This week I chose Randall Jarrell to write a few lines about. In his poem entitled “Next Day” he surprisingly uses his technique of speaking on behalf of a woman. When I first read the poem, I was confused by the use of a female voice knowing he was a male poet.
This poem is basically a cry of an old and solitary lady who would like to have company by her, but who has to be alone and suffer from her constant loneliness. It is interesting to take a look at the use of pop culture in this poem: the listing of detergents serves this purpose. If we look at their names: “Cheer”, “Joy”, “All”, we have to notice that they are absolutely the opposites of this old lady’s desperate feelings and life. There is neither cheer, nor joy in her life, and she is not surrounded by all (i.e. a lot of people), she is alone. Then a usual mourning of past comes, she establishes she has changed a lot during the years (but who not?) and now she is troubled by “What I’ve become”—as she says. It is interesting to read the description of her young years, when she was “young and miserable and pretty/And poor”, that time her wishes were simple and humble. She just wanted a husband, a house and children. This list totally fits into the list of expectations towards an average mid-50s woman. She was expected to be a housewife and she even longed for it when she was young (unlike Plath or Adrienne Rich). Then come the desires of an old lady: nowadays she would be happy if she was noticed by the others (e.g. by the grocery boy), but she is not desirable anymore, it is only her dog which gets some attention (she is petted by the boy). She is not young anymore so she will not be noticed. I guess this section would attract Rich’s (or any other woman fighting for women’s right in the 60s or even today): for men women are interesting only if they are beautiful, young and desirable, but if not, no one ever cares for them. They are just subjects of desire, nothing more. As if the fact that the world looks over her (and she does look over them as well) was not enough, she is left alone (if not looked over) by her daughter, her son and her husband. Everyone has many other things to do; they do not have free time to care for her. “I wish for them”-she says, but her cry is not heard by anyone, she is desperately alone. No wonder then that some fanciful young memories come up from “some Gay/Twenties, Nineties, I don’t know…”. Then come some really shocking lines about her present days, she is afraid of her own face and even hates it when she sees it as it is saying to her that she is old. She shares with us her inner feelings about herself and the great dismays of her life. The end is more gloomy and depressive: she is waiting for her death and declares in a really resigned manner that she is not exceptional, and she is just anybody.

The poetry of Adrienne Rich

This week I chose to analyze a bit one of Adrienne Rich’s poems entitled “Seven Skins”. Although the poem was written in 1997, it takes place in 1952, in postwar America. The image of the paraplegic GI was not uncommon that days, the waste of several young men must have been a common experience known and shared by everyone. As Vic Greenberg cannot walk without his wheelchair, he has to use “the only elevator route”. This image caught my attention and I try to imagine how hard it must have been for him to run his chair in a time when the suitable equipment for people in need was not provided. As a veteran, he got free education from the government, but we may ask the question: what is more important: bodily soundness or university education. A university degree cannot compensate the loss of limbs or total or partial paralysis. The hypocrisy of the government legislature can be seen in this case. The harsh realities of paralyzed people are well depicted in the following lines:
“Dating Vic Greenberg you date
crutches and a chair”. So they are also deprived of having average (or normal?) relationships, they are looked at by others, and anyway, who wants to date with someone like him? He, and the others like him, will have many missed opportunities in their life, just because they are destroyed by a war which they did not want to participate in, which was none of their business, still they had to go there and either die or arrive home crippled. This reminds me of one of the scenes of the film Forest Gump, when on New Year’s Eve the captain (also in a wheelchair) is together with some prostitutes who are mocking at him when he falls out of his chair and cannot stand up. He also, went to war to defend the country and the reward is now some scoffing.
Going back to the poem, some lines below the quotation we have another example of the selfish and hypocritical society. I am speaking about the paraplegics’ conference for wives to facilitate their sex life with their husbands. As if their new situation was not enough burden for them… After this the poet asks about American civilization. Yes, this was an appropriate question, seeing the American destruction in Europe (see Dresden e.g.), the needless atomic bombs in Japan, and the crippling of her own sons who gathered around Uncle Sam to defend him.
Another hint at the contemporary conditions and Vic’s state: she was taken to a restaurant without stairs. I guess a restaurant like this was hard to found back in 1952. After the meal, the usual questions seem to arise, the usual conversation after a date but in this case one of them is not “usual”. Still they spend the night together, “nakedness without sperm” as she says. (Anyway I do not know if a paraplegic is able to have sex). For at least one night he can feel that he is a man and is able to seduce (and even put to bed) any woman he wants. And what about her and her “unusual” decision? Maybe she was solitary or felt sorry for him, we do not know, but still, she helped someone in need.