Having a Coke with You - Frank O'Hara

[angabel.livejournal.com]

Having a Coke with You

is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irun, Hendaye,
       Biarritz, Bayonne
or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in
       Barcelona
partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better
       happier St. Sebastian
partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love
       for yoghurt
partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the
       birches
partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people
       and statuary
it is hard to believe when I'm with you that there can be
       anything as still
as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in
       front of it
in the warm New York 4 o'clock light we are drifting back and
       forth
between each other like a tree breathing through its
       spectacles
and the portrait show seems to have no face in it at all, just
       paint
you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them
                                                                                        I look
at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the
       world
except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it's
       in the Frick
which thank Heavens you haven't gone to yet so we can go
       together the first time
and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes
       care of Futurism
just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or
at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo
       that used to wow me
and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do
       them
when they never got the right person to stand near the tree
       when the sun sank
or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn't pick the rider
       as carefully
as the horse
                      it seems they were all cheated of some
marvellous experience
which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I'm
       telling you about it

Comments

[glass-doll.livejournal.com]

oh! I read that the other day... I love that poem :)

[magratheazaphod.livejournal.com]

I find it amusing to realize that I have actually gotten sick on the Travesera de Gracia.

[amieinstereo.livejournal.com]

Incredible!