I was wondering if anyone was into this New York poet. His writing is based on his daily spontaneous experience, during the 50's. I think he and his contemporary colleague, Allen Ginsberg, are another evidence of the cultural polarity between the West (if we set Ginsberg in the heart of the hippie movement) and East coasts of the United States, being Ginsberg more concerned about the political events taking place in his time, among other things. But this is just very a priori. I'm trying to base my final North American Literature essay on the similarities and differences between them, so a few opinions would be welcome. Chinamen Jump[size=-1] At night Chinamen jump on Asia with a thump while in our willful way we, in secret, play [/size] [size=-1]affectionate games and bruise our knees like China's shoes.[/size] [size=-1]The birds push apples through grass the moon turns blue,[/size] [size=-1]these apples roll beneath our buttocks like a heath[/size] [size=-1]full of Chinese thrushes flushed from China's bushes.[/size] [size=-1]As we love at night birds sing out of sight,[/size] [size=-1]Chinese rhythms beat through us in our heat,[/size] [size=-1]the apples and the birds move us like soft words,[/size] [size=-1]we couple in the grace of that mysterious race. [/size]
Having a coke with You and The Day Lady Died, are things that really show the sides of O'Hara. His collaborations with NY School artists through his MOMA days were really ground-breaking. I have a friend who is about to start a dissertation on the man for her finals at Uni, a wonderful subject.Yesterday I was reading a comparison of Ginsberg with Victorian Poets which was good fun, the drug inspired compared with natural euphoric awe. O'Hara was a brilliant observer like Dorothy Wordsworth, making the mundane become the moment.
Why I Am Not A Painter and The Day Lady Died are my favorite O'Hara poems. he broke a lot of taboo by openly discussing homosexual relationships in his poems. im currently reading "what did i do?" a biography of the painter Larry Rivers, and it goes into great detail concerning his sexual relationship with O'Hara. those are two interesting cats.
