(27 March 1926 – 25 July 1966 / Baltimore, Maryland)

poet Frank O'Hara
#146 on top 500 poets

Quotations

  • ''I look
    up. "You have sardines in it."
    "Yes, it needed something there."
    "Oh."''
    Frank O'Hara (1926-1966), U.S. poet. Why I Am Not a Painter (l. 7-10). . . New Oxford Book of American Verse, The. Richard Ellmann, ed. (1976) Oxford University Press.
    15 person liked.
    		1 person did not like.
  • ''It is even in
    prose, I am a real poet. My poem
    is finished and I haven't mentioned
    orange yet It's twelve poems, I call
    it oranges.''
    Frank O'Hara (1926-1966), U.S. poet. Why I Am Not a Painter (l. 24-28). . . New Oxford Book of American Verse, The. Richard Ellmann, ed. (1976) Oxford University Press.
    16 person liked.
    		2 person did not like.
  • ''And one has eaten and one walks,
    past the magazines with nudes
    and the posters for bullfight and
    the Manhattan Storage Warehouse,
    which they'll soon tear down.''
    Frank O'Hara (1926-1966), U.S. poet. A Step Away from Them (l. 40-44). . . Norton Anthology of American Literature, The, Vols. I-II. Nina Baym and others, eds. (2d ed., 1985) W. W. Norton & Company.
    7 person liked.
    		3 person did not like.
  • ''A glass of papaya juice
    and back to work. My heart is in my
    pocket, it is Poems by Pierre Reverdy.''
    Frank O'Hara (1926-1966), U.S. poet. A Step Away from Them (l. 47-49). . . Norton Anthology of American Literature, The, Vols. I-II. Nina Baym and others, eds. (2d ed., 1985) W. W. Norton & Company.
    6 person liked.
    		3 person did not like.
  • ''down the sidewalk
    where laborers feed their dirty
    glistening torsos sandwiches
    and Coca-Cola, with yellow helmets
    on. They protect them from falling
    bricks, I guess.''
    Frank O'Hara (1926-1966), U.S. poet. A Step Away from Them (l. 3-8). . . Norton Anthology of American Literature, The, Vols. I-II. Nina Baym and others, eds. (2d ed., 1985) W. W. Norton & Company.
    0 person liked.
    		0 person did not like.
  • ''Go back to sleep now
    Frank, and I may leave a tiny poem
    in that brain of yours as my farewell.'''
    Frank O'Hara (1926-1966), U.S. poet. A True Account of Talking to the Sun at Fire Island (l. 73-75). . . Harvard Book of Contemporary American Poetry, The. Helen Vendler, ed. (1985) The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
    2 person liked.
    		0 person did not like.
  • ''If you don't appear
    at all one day they think you're lazy
    or dead.''
    Frank O'Hara (1926-1966), U.S. poet. A True Account of Talking to the Sun at Fire Island (l. 42-44). . . Harvard Book of Contemporary American Poetry, The. Helen Vendler, ed. (1985) The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
    1 person liked.
    		0 person did not like.
  • ''And
    always embrace things, people earth
    sky stars, as I do, freely and with
    the appropriate sense of space.''
    Frank O'Hara (1926-1966), U.S. poet. A True Account of Talking to the Sun at Fire Island (l. 64-67). . . Harvard Book of Contemporary American Poetry, The. Helen Vendler, ed. (1985) The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
    1 person liked.
    		0 person did not like.
  • '''No, go I must, they're calling
    me.'
    'Who are they?'
    Rising he said "Some
    day you'll know. They're calling to you
    too.' Darkly he rose, and then I slept.''
    Frank O'Hara (1926-1966), U.S. poet. A True Account of Talking to the Sun at Fire Island (l. 77-82). . . Harvard Book of Contemporary American Poetry, The. Helen Vendler, ed. (1985) The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
    1 person liked.
    		0 person did not like.
  • ''And don't worry about your lineage
    poetic or natural.''
    Frank O'Hara (1926-1966), U.S. poet. A True Account of Talking to the Sun at Fire Island (l. 45-46). . . Harvard Book of Contemporary American Poetry, The. Helen Vendler, ed. (1985) The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
    0 person liked.
    		0 person did not like.

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Call Me

The eager note on my door said "Call me,"
call when you get in!" so I quickly threw
a few tangerines into my overnight bag,
straightened my eyelids and shoulders, and

headed straight for the door. It was autumn
by the time I got around the corner, oh all
unwilling to be either pertinent or bemused, but
the leaves were brighter than grass on the sidewalk!

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