Imagine yourself a couple of years from now (or even now) taking a sip of coffee or biting into a sandwich at your favorite cafe. What would you be doing? Reading a book, perhaps? Or would you be watching the world around you? Frank O'Hara does just that. In Lunch Poems, O'Hara writes many poems about his life and the life around him. It could be about traveling or just about some of the people and places he knows in Manhattan. Unfortunately, the settings of the poems seem to vary a lot, and not always "lunch" time. I wonder if he writes the poems or thinks about them during lunch. Either way, his poetry seems to be very personal--like I said in class, a diary. Although I could not understand about 30 of his 37 poems, O'Hara is not afraid to write what is on his mind. For example, he seems to be really interested in an actress named Lana Turner and references to her a couple of times throughout the book. There is even a full poem devoted to her and her collapse.
What do I like about O'Hara? I can totally see myself being in his situation. I would not necessarily write confusing poems like him, but the process he goes through. I can see myself in a couple of years finding a favorite cafe or mini-market and the ponder about life's questions and the world for hours on end. If only the day had a little more time. I don't know if I would actually write poetry, but I know I would jot things down. Actually, I have done it a couple times now. I would gather some food at Pat Brown's or Ramona's and find a nice place to sit and relax.
Then all these thoughts pop into my mind:
- Where did he get those shoes?
- What kind of building is Wurster?
- How is my mom doing?
- Self: when are you going to do your homework?
Sometimes I would get to some deep questions:
- What is my purpose on earth? (This has gotten somewhat annoying now)
- If Jesus were here today, how would people act differently? Why?
- What could I be doing to help make this world better?
I know, it's pretty random at times, but I just like thinking about certain things in my life. I wonder if O'Hara feels the same. His style of writing and choice of topics seem to be over my head, but I wonder if some of the things that pop in my mind may be a little bizarre to him. It would be nice to ask him a couple of questions:
- Where do you get your ideas from?
- How would you describe your style of poetry?
- What's your motivation or your reasons for writing these lunch poems?
I highly doubt O'Hara would write such things for income, but I also don't think it's simply for enjoyment. In my opinion, I think O'Hara has a deeper reason for his poetry. Maybe he is searching for a message in his life, a sign to tell him where to go.
So I ask you again, imagine yourself thinking about life, the people and events around you. What would you think about? What would you do? Let's say you had some free time for a couple of hours, but you were alone. Would you write Lunch poems?
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2 comments:
Like you and many other people, I would probably not choose to write poem while I'm thinking about the deeper meanings of life during lunch. I would more likely jot things down on a piece of paper or talk them over with a friend. I usually think of pretty random things as well when my mind is wandering off. But most of the time I'm reminding myself to do something productive or thinking about my future.
My most profound thoughts seem to come to me while I'm doing physics homework. While this is probably because my mind is trying desperately to find a distraction from the brain-numbing, variable-crunching work, I still think that people have different ways of relating with the world and life at large. I guess O'Hara was just particularly inspired when he sat down to eat lunch, or maybe eating was a break from what he did the rest of the day, and he simply took the time to think of other things.
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