Frank O'Hara Poems

Alone at night
in the wet city

the country's wit
...

is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne
or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona
partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian
partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt
...

It is almost three
I sit at the marble top
sorting poems, miserable
the little lamp glows feebly
...

1
Wet heat drifts through the afternoon
like a campus dog, a fraternity ghost
waiting to stay home from football games.
...

Lana Turner has collapsed!
I was trotting along and suddenly
it started raining and snowing
and you said it was hailing
...

It is 12:20 in New York a Friday
three days after Bastille day, yes
it is 1959 and I go get a shoeshine
because I will get off the 4:19 in Easthampton
...

Hate is only one of many responses
true, hurt and hate go hand in hand
but why be afraid of hate, it is only there
think of filth, is it really awesome
...

At night Chinamen jump
on Asia with a thump
while in our willful way
we, in secret, play
...

At night Chinamen jump
on Asia with a thump
while in our willful way
we, in secret, play
...

Now that our hero has come back to us
in his white pants and we know his nose
trembling like a flag under fire,
we see the calm cold river is supporting
...