Week Seven
Adieu to Norman, Bon Jour to Joan and Jean-Paul
Ann Arbor Variations
1
Wet heat drifts through the afternoon
like a campus dog, a fraternity ghost
waiting to stay home from football games.
The arches are empty clear to the sky.
Except for the leaves: those lashes of our
thinking and dreaming and drinking sight.
The spherical radiance, the Old English
look, the sum of our being, “hath perced
to the roote” all our springs and falls
and now rolls over our limpness, a daily
dragon. We lose our health in a love
of color, drown in a fountain of myriads,
as simply as children. It is too hot,
our birth was given up to screaming. Our
life on these street lawns seems silent.
The leaves chatter their comparisons
Augustus
Read Augustus on the Poetry Foundation site.
Aus Einem April
Read Aus Einem April on the Poetry Foundation site.
Ave Maria
Cambridge
Read Cambridge on the Poetry Foundation site.
Chez Jane
The Day Lady Died
Dido
Read Dido on the Poetry Foundation site.
Dolce Colloquio
Read Dolce Colloquio on the Poetry Foundation site.
The Eyelid Has Its Storms . . .
Read The Eyelid Has Its Storms . . . on the Poetry Foundation site.
For James Dean
Read For James Dean on the Poetry Foundation Site.
For Janice and Kenneth to Voyage
Read For Janice and Kenneth Voyage on the Poetry Foundation site.
Homosexuality
Read Homosexuality on the Poetry Foundation site.
In Favor of One’s Time
Read In Favor of One’s Time on the Poetry Foundation site.
Intermezzo
Read Intermezzo on the Poetry Foundation site.
Lisztiana
Read Lisztiana on the Poetry Foundation site.
The Man Without a Country
Read The Man Without a Country on the Poetry Foundation site.
Maurice Ravel
Read Maurice Ravel on the Poetry Foundation site.
Mayakovsky
Meditations in an Emergency
Am I to become profligate as if I were a blonde? Or religious as if I were French?
Each time my heart is broken it makes me feel more adventurous (and how the same names keep recurring on that interminable list!), but one of these days there’ll be nothing left with which to venture forth.
Why should I share you? Why don’t you get rid of someone else for a change?
I am the least difficult of men. All I want is boundless love.
Even trees understand me! Good heavens, I lie under them, too, don’t I? I’m just like a pile of leaves.
However, I have never clogged myself with the praises of pastoral life, nor with nostalgia for an innocent past of perverted acts in pastures. No. One need never leave the confines of New York to get all the greenery one wishes—I can’t even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there’s a subway handy, or a record store or some other sign that people do not totally regret life. It is more important to affirm the least sincere; the clouds get enough attention as it is and even they continue to pass. Do they know what they’re missing? Uh huh.
My eyes are vague blue, like the sky, and change all the time; they are indiscriminate but fleeting, entirely specific and disloyal, so that no one trusts me. I am always looking away. Or again at something after it has given me up. It makes me restless and that makes me unhappy, but I cannot keep them still. If only I had grey, green, black, brown, yellow eyes; I would stay at home and do something. It’s not that I am curious. On the contrary, I am bored but it’s my duty to be attentive, I am needed by things as the sky must be above the earth. And lately, so great has their anxiety become, I can spare myself little sleep.
Now there is only one man I love to kiss when he is unshaven. Heterosexuality! you are inexorably approaching. (How discourage her?)
St. Serapion, I wrap myself in the robes of your whiteness which is like midnight in Dostoevsky. How am I to become a legend, my dear? I’ve tried love, but that hides you in the bosom of another and I am always springing forth from it like the lotus—the ecstasy of always bursting forth! (but one must not be distracted by it!) or like a hyacinth, “to keep the filth of life away,” yes, there, even in the heart, where the filth is pumped in and courses and slanders and pollutes and determines. I will my will, though I may become famous for a mysterious vacancy in that department, that greenhouse.
Destroy yourself, if you don’t know!
It is easy to be beautiful; it is difficult to appear so. I admire you, beloved, for the trap you’ve set. It’s like a final chapter no one reads because the plot is over.
“Fanny Brown is run away—scampered off with a Cornet of Horse; I do love that little Minx, & hope She may be happy, tho’ She has vexed me by this Exploit a little too. —Poor silly Cecchina! or F:B: as we used to call her. —I wish She had a good Whipping and 10,000 pounds.” —Mrs. Thrale.
I’ve got to get out of here. I choose a piece of shawl and my dirtiest suntans. I’ll be back, I’ll re-emerge, defeated, from the valley; you don’t want me to go where you go, so I go where you don’t want me to. It’s only afternoon, there’s a lot ahead. There won’t be any mail downstairs. Turning, I spit in the lock and the knob turns.
The Mike Goldberg Variations
Read The Mike Goldberg Variations on the Poetry Foundation site.
Noir Cacadou, or the Fatal Music of War
Read Noir Cacadou, or the Fatal Music of War on the Poetry Foundation site.
A Note to Harold Fondren
Read A Note to Harold Fondren on the Poetry Foundation site.
Now It Is Light . . .
Read Now It Is Light . . . on the Poetry Foundation site.
On a Mountain
Read On a Mountain on the Poetry Foundation site.
On Rachmaninoff’s Birthday
Read On Rachmaninoff’s Birthday on the Poetry Foundation site.
On Seeing Larry Rivers’ “Washington Crossing the Delaware” at the Museum of Modern Art
Read On Seeing Larry Rivers’ “Washington Crossing the Delaware” at the Museum of Modern Art on the Poetry Foundation site.
Personal Poem
Places for Oscar Salvador
Read Places for Oscar Salvador on the Poetry Foundation site.
Poem “À la recherche d’ Gertrude Stein”
Poem (At night Chinamen jump)
At night Chinamen jump
on Asia with a thump
while in our willful way
we, in secret, play
affectionate games and bruise
our knees like China’s shoes.
The birds push apples through
grass the moon turns blue,
these apples roll beneath
our buttocks like a heath
full of Chinese thrushes
flushed from China’s bushes.
As we love at night
birds sing out of sight,
Chinese rhythms beat
through us in our heat,
the apples and the birds
move us like soft words,
we couple in the grace
of that mysterious race.
Poem (“Green things are flowers…”
Read Poem (“Green things are flowers…”) on the Poetry Foundation site.
Poem (“Hate is only one…”)
Read Poem (“Hate is only one…”) on the Poetry Foundation site.
Poem (“I am not sure…”)
Read Poem (“I am not sure…”) on the Poetry Foundation site.
Poem in January
Read Poem in January on the Poetry Foundation site.
Poem (“Instant coffee with…”)
Read Poem (“Instant coffee with…”) on the Poetry Foundation site.
Poem [“Khrushchev is coming on the right day!”]
Poem [“Lana Turner has collapsed!”]
Poem [“The eager note on my door said, ‘Call me,’”]
Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia, as Perdita
Read Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia, as Perdita on the Poetry Foundation site.
Radio
Read Radio on the Poetry Foundation site.
Rhapsody
Romanze, or the Music Students
Read Romanze, or the Music Students on the Poetry Foundation site.
Room
Read Room on the Poetry Foundation site.
Round Objects
Read Round Objects on the Poetry Foundation site.
Saint
Read Saint on the Poetry Foundation site.
Serenade
Read Serenade on the Poetry Foundation site.
A Step Away from Them
Sudden Snow
Read Sudden Snow on the Poetry Foundation site.
To the Harbormaster
To You
Read To You on the Poetry Foundation site.
The Tomb of Arnold Schoenberg
Read The Tomb of Arnold Schoenberg on the Poetry Foundation site.
Unicorn
Read Unicorn on the Poetry Foundation site.
Variations on Pasternak’s “Mein Liebchen, Was Willst Du Noch Mehr?”
Read Variations on Pasternak’s “Mein Liebchen, Was Willst Du Noch Mehr?” on the Poetry Foundation site.
Walking
Read Walking on the Poetry Foundation site.
Walking to Work
Read Walking to Work on the Poetry Foundation site.
A Wreath for John Wheelwright
Read A Wreath for John Wheelwright on the Poetry Foundation site.
Sources
“Adieu to Norman, Bon Jour to Joan and Jean-Paul” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Ann Arbor Variations” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Augustus” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Aus Einem April” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Ave Maria” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Cambridge” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Chez Jane” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“The Day Lady Died” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Dido” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Dolce Colloquio” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“The Eyelid Has Its Storms…” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“For James Dean” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“For Janice and Kenneth to Voyage” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Homosexuality” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“In Favor of One’s Time” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Intermezzo” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Lisztiana” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“The Man Without a Country” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Maurice Ravel” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Mayakovsky” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Meditations in an Emergency” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“The Mike Goldberg Variations” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Noir Cacadou, or the Fatal Music of War” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“A Note to Harold Fondren” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Now It Is Light…” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“On a Mountain” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“On Rachmaninoff’s Birthday” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“On Seeing Larry Rivers’ “Washington Crossing the Delaware” at the Museum of Modern Art” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Personal Poem” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Places for Oscar Salvador” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Poem ‘À la recherche d’ Gertrude Stein’” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Poem (At night Chinamen jump)” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Poem (Green things are flowers…)” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Poem (Hate is only one…)” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Poem (I am not sure…)” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Poem in January” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Poem (Instant coffee with…)” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Poem [“Khrushchev is coming on the right day!”]” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Poem [“Lana Turner has collapsed!”] by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Poem [“The eager note on my door said, ‘Call me,’”]” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia, as Perdita” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Radio” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Rhapsody” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Romanze, or the Music Students” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Room” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Round Objects” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Saint” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Serenade” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“A Step Away from Them” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Sudden Snow” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“To the Harbormaster” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“To You” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“The Tomb of Arnold Schoenberg” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Unicorn” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Variations on Pasternak’s “Mein Liebchen, Was Willst Du Noch Mehr?” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Walking” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“Walking to Work” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.
“A Wreath for John Wheelwright” by Frank O’Hara is in the public domain. This version was retrieved from Poetry Foundation.