Frank O'Hara Poems

I am not a painter, I am a poet.
Why? I think I would rather be
a painter, but I am not. Well,
...

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
...

I've got to tell you
how I love you always
I think of it on grey
mornings with death
...

So we are taking off our masks, are we, and keeping
our mouths shut? as if we'd been pierced by a glance!

The song of an old cow is not more full of judgment
...

My quietness has a man in it, he is transparent
and he carries me quietly, like a gondola, through the streets.
He has several likenesses, like stars and years, like numerals.
...

When music is far enough away
the eyelid does not often move

and objects are still as lavender
...

If I rest for a moment near The Equestrian
pausing for a liver sausage sandwich in the Mayflower Shoppe,
that angel seems to be leading the horse into Bergdorf's
and I am naked as a table cloth, my nerves humming.
...

When I was a child
I played by myself in a
corner of the schoolyard
all alone.
...

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
...

After the first glass of vodka
you can accept just about anything
of life even your own mysteriousness
you think it is nice that a box
...