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Tuesday, March 23, 2004

FRANK 2

"Having a Coke with You
BY FRANK O'HARA
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
partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches
partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary   
it is hard to believe when I’m with you that there can be anything as still   
as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it   
in the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and forth   
between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles

and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint   
you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them
                                                                                       I look
at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world   
except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick
which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together the first time   
and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism   
just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or   
at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me   
and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them   
when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank   
or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully   
as the horse
                   it seems they were all cheated of some marvellous experience
which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I’m telling you about it

"In 1959, O' Hara wrote a mock manifesto (originally published in Yugen in 1961) called "Personism: A Manifesto." In it, he explains his position on formal structure: "I don't ... like rhythm, assonance, all that stuff. You just go on your nerve. If someone's chasing you down the street with a knife you just run, you don't turn around and shout, 'Give it up! I was a track star for Mineola Prep.'" He also says, in response to an academic over-emphasis on form, "As for measure and other technical apparatus, that's just common sense: if you're going to buy a pair of pants you want them to be tight enough so everyone will want to go to bed with you. There's nothing metaphysical about it."

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I like rainbows, crystals, coloured pencils, swimming, manifesting, visualising, poetry, going out for breakfast, graphic novels, air conditioning, miniature anything, clothing made from synthetic fabrics, travelling, travelling, staying in nice hotels, headphones, husbears + soft hands. I don't like people who make me feel tired.

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