Frank O'Hara

[tomEisenbraun]

Steps

How funny you are today New York
like Ginger Rogers in Swingtime
and St. Bridget's steeple leaning a little to the left

here I have just jumped out of a bed full of V-days
(I got tired of D-days) and blue you there still
accepts me foolish and free
all I want is a room up there
and you in it
and even the traffic halt so thick is a way
for people to rub up against each other
and when their surgical appliances lock
they stay together
for the rest of the day (what a day)
I go by to check a slide and I say
that painting's not so blue

where's Lana Turner
she's out eating
and Garbo's backstage at the Met
everyone's taking their coat off
so they can show a rib-cage to the rib-watchers
and the park's full of dancers with their tights and shoes
in little bags
who are often mistaken for worker-outers at the West Side Y
why not
the Pittsburgh Pirates shout because they won
and in a sense we're all winning
we're alive

the apartment was vacated by a gay couple
who moved to the country for fun
they moved a day too soon
even the stabbings are helping the population explosion
though in the wrong country
and all those liars have left the UN
the Seagram Building's no longer rivalled in interest
not that we need liquor (we just like it)

and the little box is out on the sidewalk
next to the delicatessen
so the old man can sit on it and drink beer
and get knocked off it by his wife later in the day
while the sun is still shining

oh god it's wonderful
to get out of bed
and drink too much coffee
and smoke too many cigarettes
and love you so much       

[tomEisenbraun]

(we're reading him my May semester class. turns out there was a point in me starting this thread. read on...)

[size=10]FAVORITE PAINTING AT THE METROPOLITAN[/size]

"these are the stairs
from Funny Face"

But I would like to see
the three Zenobious bits
before I die of the heat
or you die of the denim
or we fight it out without
lances in the obscure public

"I don't think Houdon
does the trick"

and I could walk through ex-
changing with you through the
exchanging universe tears
of regretless interest tears of
fun and everything being temporary
right where it seems so permanent

"when I saw you coming
I forgot all about Breuhgel"

no we love us still hanging
around the paintings Richard Burton
waves through de Kooning the
Wild West rides up out of the Pollock
and a Fragonard smiles no pinker
than your left ear, no bigger either

"let's go by my place
before the movies"

I really don't care
If I have a standard or not
or a backless coat of mail
since I never intend to back
up or out of this
whether not is something

"but I think there's
a lot of sin going on"

a long wait in the lists
and the full Courbets like
snow falling over piles of shit
such sadness, you love all
the Annunciations you are feeling
very Sunday take axe to palm

"they weren't just Madonnas
the were skies!"

so if we take it all down
and put it all up again differently
it will be the same elsewhere
changed as, if we changed we would
hate each other so we don't change
each other or others would love us

"oh shit! a run"

I see the mirror and this
time you follow me seeing me in it
first, the perfect image of my
existence with the sky above
me which has never drowned on me
in any dream of your knowledge

[tomEisenbraun]

References for that poem:

Funny Face:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funny_Face_%28musical%29

Botticelli's "Three Miracle of St. Zenobius"


Houdon (neoclassical sculptor) "Bust of Voltaire" as a good example of his work:



Breuhgel:
Either Pieter the Elder : http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hi/hi_brpi.htm
Jan the Elder: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hi/hi_brja.htm
or Jan the Younger http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hi/hi_bruey.htm

Richard Burton:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000009/

de Kooning "Woman" -- inspired by visits to the Met--an appropriate example of his work, I think:


Pollock "Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)"



Fragonard "The Stolen Kiss"


Courbet "Young Women From The Village"


Bellini: "Young Woman at Her Toilette" (the mirror)