Poem [Lana Turner Has Collapsed!] (Frank O'Hara)

This poem by Frank O'Hara is so quick, so glib it's almost gleeful. It's fun and it's light to read, but all the subtext is lugubrious.

It's such a Hollywood poem - it deals with a movie star and a tabloid story of her collapse. It's such an inconsequential story. N of the poem is walking when his world is suddenly stopped short by this story and he seems to have such a visceral reaction to it - he implores her to 'get up', 'we love you'. It makes me wonder about that kind of connection people feel toward far-away movie stars. And it made me wonder if that feeling of connection is sad or empathetic.

I like the sense of N you get from this poem. All of the 'ands' and run-on sentences in the poem makes the speaker seem really young. And then his seemingly random concern with Lana Turner makes N seem immature - his feelings, like his thoughts are scattered and all over the place.

I like that this poem can be both a portrait of a person and also contain talk of the glibness of Hollywood culture (and also a bit about the weather in NYC!). It's a short, quick poem that contains more and more the longer I look at it.

Favorite line: "I was trotting along and suddenly / it started raining and snowing"

I was trotting along and suddenly it started raining and snowing - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20394#sthash.cBOOhrbN.dpuf

Why I Am Not a Painter (Frank O'Hara)

Today's poem is Why I Am Not a Painter by Frank O'Hara.

This poem came up, sort of, one evening in workshop. Someone mentioned hearing about a painting called Sardines that had not a single sardine in it. The conversation started when another person had apologized for bringing in a poem with a title that had nothing to do with the words that followed. It was the spark for the poem only, she had said. It was funny: the person who brought up the example of the sardines was not quoting this poem. She must have read or heard it before, but she had forgotten the true source and she gave the example disassociated from the work. And ain't that proof of the poem in real life?

Favorite line: "My poem/is finished and I haven't mentioned/orange yet. It's twelve poems"

Ave Maria (Frank O'Hara)

This poem by Frank O'Hara is hilarious. It also has a deeper, scarier edge.

What I like is how this poem is such a poem of the 20th century. Sure, whatever, it's about movies, of course, it's about the 1900s. But no, what I mean, is that this poem reads like the slick movies that it talks about. It is that easy to understand, that well put together, that glib, but wait are we really talking about erm, that???

You're reading along, skimming, when you come to the line "they may even be grateful to you/for their first sexual experience/which only cost you a quarter/and didn't upset the peaceful home" and you're stopped short with a puzzled expression on your face. After all, what is a statement of that gravity doing in a glib poem about the joy of going to the movies? But, that's what is wonderful about this poem. It's totally about both sides of the modern age. It's not all glitzy. It's almost a cliche by now--the dark side of Hollywood, but this poem is definitely not cliche. It's brilliantly funny and scary--all the more scary for how amusing and fun it is.

Favorite line: "Mothers of America/let your kids go to the movies!"

Question: Can anyone fill me in as to what the title is doing for this poem?