Lunch Poems

Finally bought Frank O'Hara's Lunch Poems, with my usual excuse: it's for school! And we are starting a New York City unit, but mostly I bought Lunch Poems for me, because I've wanted it for a long time.

I didn't know about his "Joseph Cornell," which I found online here when I went looking for "Adieu to Norman, Bon Jour to Joan and Jean-Paul" so I wouldn't have to type it in. I haven't read anything about Cornell and O'Hara, but of course they would have had some contact...O'Hara seems to have some sympathy, some pity, but also some admiration for Cornell which makes me like O'Hara that much more. Cornell sounds like he was a difficult, awkward guy in social settings, and just generally odd. But O'Hara got the art, and O'Hara cared about art, so there you go.

Anyway I found that, but I didn't find the poem I was looking for. Here are the lines that are making me like it most lately:

but it is good to be several floors up in the dead of night
wondering whether you are any good or not
and the only decision you can make is that you did it

...okay, except you really have to read the whole thing.


ADIEU TO NORMAN,
BON JOUR TO JEAN AND JEAN-PAUL

It is 12:10 in New York and I am wondering
if I will finish this in time to meet Norman for lunch
ah lunch! I think I am going crazy
what with my terrible hangover and the weekend coming up

at excitement-prone Kenneth Koch's
I wish I were staying in town and working on my poems
at Joan's studio for a new book by Grove Press
which they will probably not print
but it is good to be several floors up in the dead of the night
wondering whether you are any good or not
and the only decision you can make is that you did it

yesterday I looked up the rue Fremicourt on a map
and was happy to find it like a bird
flying over Paris et ses environs
which unfortunately did not include Seine-et-Oise which I don't know

as well as a number of other things
and Allen is back talking about god a lot
and Peter is back not talking very much
and Joe has a cold and is not coming to Kenneth's
although he is coming to lunch with Norman
I suspect he is making a distinction
well, who isn't

I wish I were reeling around Paris
instead of reeling around New York
I wish I weren't reeling at all
it is Spring the ice has melted the Ricard is being poured

we are all happy and young and toothless
it is the same as old age
the only thing to do is simply continue
is that simple
yes, it is simple because it is the only thing to do
can you do it
yes, you can because it is the only thing to do
blue light over the Bois de Boulogne it continues
the Seine continues
the Louvre stays open it continues it hardly closes at all
the Bar Americain continues to be French
de Gaulle continues to be Algerian as does Camus
Shirley Goldfarb continues to be Shirley Goldfarb
and Jane Hazan continues to be Jane Freilicher (I think!)
and Irving Sandler continues to be the balayeur des artistes
and so do I (sometimes I think I'm "in love" with painting)
and surely the Piscine Deligny continues to have water in it
and the Flore continues to have tables and newspapers and people
under them
and surely we shall not continue to be unhappy
we shall be happy
but we shall continue to be ourselves everything continues to be
possible
Rene Char, Pierre Reverdy, Samuel Beckett it is possible isn't it
I love Reverdy for saying yes, though I don't believe it


1959