I’ve been thinking a lot about the great New York poet Frank O’Hara – he strolled the Manhattan streets in the 1950s and ’60s writing brilliant, hilarious autobiographical poems about everyday life, kind of like the first blogger.
I cannot find any of my O’Hara volumes at the moment, but here at least is a wonderful poem that is available among others on line.
Today
Oh! kangaroos, sequins, chocolate sodas!
You really are beautiful! Pearls,
harmonicas, jujubes, aspirins! all
the stuff they’ve always talked about
still makes a poem a surprise!
These things are with us every day
even on beachheads and biers. They
do have meaning. They’re strong as rocks.
Jean Zimmerman 