The Frank Skinner Show - Frank Skinner's Poetry Podcast: Frank O'Hara

Episode Date: November 27, 2024

Frank is more than slightly besotted with ‘Lunch Poems’ by Frank O'Hara. The poems referenced are ‘Personal Poem’ and ‘The Day Lady Died’ by Frank O’Hara. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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have in the past been moved to tears on this podcast by various passages of poetry. Only yesterday I was moved to tears again, this time not by a poem but by a till receipt. And it's from Waterstones Bookshop and it is, what happened was I was given a 25 pounds book voucher, and I bought the translations of Seamus Heaney, a big, fat, exciting book, Beowulf, et cetera, in there. And you know, when you buy something on a voucher

and you've got a bit of money left over, I don't like to leave that. I like to spend it. So I had whatever £18.99 from £25 is left about five, six quid and I was looking around for another book I could buy and what I spotted was Launch Poems by Frank O'Hara. Now I knew of Frank O'Hara but couldn't remember ever reading any of his poetry but it just pushed the 25 voucher to 25.98 so I knew I'd have to pay an extra 98p But I was getting a poetry book for 98p and even if it was awful who cares and the thing was it also it was pocket sized and

It was part of the pocket poets series in fact Which has in the past included someone I really love, Alan Ginsberg. And so, yes, that's what happened. I bought Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara. And when I first read it through, I wasn't sure I had done the right thing. It didn't really grab me. And then it started I started to get more and more into these poems in

in lunch poems to the point where I downloaded the book on audible the audio version of the book and just let it play in my ear over and over and over. Whatever I was doing there was Frank Ohara's launch poems sort of happening behind it. Okay so obviously today I want to read you something from Frank Ohara's launch poems. By the way the reason I became emotional when I saw the receipt was that that purchase was only three months ago and I was really taken aback that now I feel utterly consumed by Frank O'Hara's lunch poems and then it was just bought on a whim as a sort of extra to make up the book token. Yes, different people are moved by different things. So what can I tell you about Frank Ohara and these

poems? Well, the poems are full of friends names, sexual references, often gay sex references, art and literature are all over these poems, lots of French celebrity names, place names, especially New York place names. And also the poems include years, dates, times, makes them feel like diary entries, except they're almost always in present tense. So they really move along. Franco-Horror was known amongst his friends for dashing off poems and for poems being around his home, on bits of paper, crammed into drawers, shoved in boxes. And there is a sort of a stance in these poems that he doesn't want to be too poetic with them,

that they are quick, they just fall out of him. He calls them his I do this and I do that poems. And also just to give you another couple of quotes from Frank O'Hara speaking of poetry, I don't even like rhythm, assonance, all that stuff. You just go on your nerve. That's how he describes his poetry writing. Assonance you'll remember is sort of internal rhyme when two vowels close to each other rhyme. He also said the recent propagandists for technique on the one hand and for content on the other had better watch out. So he's suggesting that technique and content are not that important.

So why do I love them so much? Well, people who weigh back in the lifespan of these podcasts will remember when I did the Beat Poets. One of the things I said about them was I felt that the poetry just happened. They didn't worry about it and fret about it, they had to write the poetry. Alan Ginsberg being an obvious example, that's how it feels. He needs to get it down on paper fast, he's got poetry pouring from him. And that's how these poems feel. They feel like sort of brilliant aside,

someone leading an exciting life and they don't want to pass by without recording it poetically. Years ago I said to my child when he was about four, I'm gonna be away for a couple of days, I'll miss you. And he says hold on, I'll do you a drawing. And he drew himself and gave it to me. And there's that thing with kids where drawing is that straightforward, that much a part of life, they don't even think about it. I would never consider doing a drawing now for a reason like that. And I think Frank O'Hara uses poetry like that. He doesn't think of it as a separate thing from the rest of his life. There's a poet called Leroy Jones, who later became a Meery Baraka. But in the poetry of O'Hara, he's still Leroy Jones when he's mentioned.

He was a poet and activist and he said how he loved Ohara's casual and personal openness. And that's what I love about these poems. You feel like he's talking to you and it doesn't feel overworked. It doesn't feel that it's been built, this poem. It feels like it's happening now they have real life and Vitality and Yeah, I'm excited by them and you're catching me three months in and I'm you know, it's that early stages of love. I'm Infatuated one thing that I going to do this week as well,

which I never normally do on this, is I'm going to sort of relax my concept of the poet versus the speaker of the poem. You know, I like to say we should never assume it's the poet talking because often poets use personas and sort of performance voices for their poems but with Ohara you really get the feel it's Ohara that's talking to you. Okay so first poem is called Poem. Couldn't even be bothered to come up with a title. Okay it's lighter in the book, Launch Poems,

and every poem has the year of composition on the bottom of it and this one is 1962. You know what, I'm tempted to give you the whole poem and I never do that, I know, but I think you can get away with it with Frank O'Hara. Just Lie back and if you're walking down the street or driving maybe don't do that But just just let it flow and then we'll look at it By the way, I should say just as a as a help the poem refers to Lana Turner Lana Turner was a very glamorous Hollywood star and one of those glamorous Hollywood stars who was a sort of darling of the tabloid, she'd always been there with some falling out with a boyfriend or some sort of scandal.

Lana Turner has collapsed. I was trotting along and suddenly it started raining and snowing and you said it was hailing but hailing hits you on the head hard. So it was really snowing and raining and I was in such a hurry to meet you but the traffic was acting exactly like the sky and suddenly I see a headline. Lana Turner has collapsed. There is no snow in Hollywood there is no rain in California I have been to lots of parties and acted perfectly disgraceful

but I never actually collapsed oh Lana Turner we love you get up! Okay so that is the first poem. Everyone calls it Lana Turner has Collapsed but it's actually called Poem and it features as I say in Launch Poems by Frank O'Hara. The suggestion is that these poems are often written during Ohara's lunch breaks as he wanders around New York City getting a sandwich or whatever he needs to do. He worked at the Museum of Modern Art, had a sort of meteoric rise there, I think, starting off on the information desk and ended up as a curator. So he was a smart cookie and he loves the visual arts as well as the literary arts both feature a lot in this poetry. This I find it really funny. This wasn't apparently written on a launch break.

Franco Hara had a poetry reading in Staten Island. And if you've been to New York, you know the best way to get to Staten Island is to go to Staten Island Ferry. And when he was on the ferry, he saw a copy of the New York Post. And there was the headline about Lana Turner collapsing. And he just wrote the poem on the ferry

and then read it that night at the poetry reading. This was well documented the 9th of February, 1962. He was reading with another poet, Robert Lowell, who was a bit of a rival of his. And I think when Frank O'Hara wrote this, he must have thought this will absolutely slay the crowd tonight because it's just happened, this incident and I've written a poem about it and it's funny and I'm going to read it and they'll love it and people love topical stuff. If you do stand-up comedy

you'll know there's a special thrill to topical material and Robert Lowell was sort of slightly blown off stage I think by this and when he went on Robert Lowell he apologized for not having written a poem on his way to the event slightly haughtily. Let's have a little look at it. You don't have to analyze it too much, I don't think. Lana Turner has collapsed! Exclamation mark. And you don't get much punctuation in the lunch poems, but that one is taken from the headline.

And so the New York Post provides that punctuation. I was trotting along already that movement, there's always a feeling of movement in these poems. I was trotting along and suddenly it started raining and snowing and you said it was hailing. I think when we first get that we assume he's with a friend but then that sort of falls down in the next couple of lines I was trotting along and suddenly started raining and snowing and you said it was hailing but hailing it you on the head hard So it was really snowing and raining and I was in such a hurry to meet you So you think well, how can it be in a hurry to meet this guy if they're having a conversation?

So what it feels like is they had a phone conversation and the friend said, by the way, it's hailing. But when he gets out there, he decides that it's first of all that it's raining and snowing and then readjusts that trivial interpretation to saying that it's actually snowing and raining. I was in such a hurry to meet you, but the traffic was acting exactly like the sky. Now, whether he likes it or not, that is a poetic moment for Franco-horror, because the traffic was acting exactly like the sky and we know the sky is raining and snowing, it's relentless, it's bearing down and that's what the traffic

is like that day. So that is a beautifully apt and I'm going to say poetic simile. And what's great about this is the things that are being discussed here for the first, I don't know, ten lines or so, are the weather and the traffic incredibly mundane, everyday chat things. But they still to me sound sizzling and suddenly I see a headline and then we get block capitals Lana Turner has collapsed and suddenly he can only think about that but he's obviously using his current experience to process it. There's no snow in Hollywood there's no rain in California, so there's two excuses for collapsing, falling over that Lana Turner doesn't have. I've been to lots of parties and acted perfectly disgraceful, but I never actually collapsed.

So that sounds like a third reason for her not falling over, but it also obviously tells us a lot about the speaker, about Frank O'Hara, the casual mention. I've been to lots of parties and acted perfectly disgraceful. But I never actually collapsed. A suggestion maybe on the verge of collapse, but 40. And then that last line, which I just love.

Oh, Lana Turner, we love you. Get up. And I think there's some genuineness in the love of Lana Turner. I think it is an element of gay humour if it's okay for a straight guy to comment on gay humor. But I find that gay humor loves a slightly out of control celebrity, maybe with a hint of tragedy, and especially when they are treated with slight brutality in the discussion. So I think in a way it sounds like he does love lana turner in a slightly ironic way when he says we love you i think he speaks for a whole coterie of cool new york friends lana turner we love you

get up So I think what is loved about Lana Turner is probably her soldiering on through all the scandal. And, but now she's actually on the floor. Stop embarrassing us, will you? And get up. But really that last line when I first read it really made me laugh. That is the front door. Hold on. really made me laugh. That is the front door. Hold on. I'm back.

That was a fabulous launch poems moment when everything is included, including the doorbell. Okay. So that was the first poem. If you thought that is just a guy talking, then maybe you're not gonna like this. I also said everything is in a... well I didn't. I said a lot of these poems are in present tense, which gives them a real life and sizzle. Lana Turner has collapsed, I was trotting along. So the first part of this is past tense. And I think it's past tense because when he sees the headline, everything then lights up. Lana Turner has collapsed and from then on it's present tense. There is no snow in Hollywood, there is no rain in California and so it's like he's

invigorated by this slightly scandalous headline which I love. I'm gonna go on to the next poem. You hear those pages turning? Okay good. This is called personal poem. The last one was called poem. As I say, he's not pushing the boat. There are some proper titles. As usual, there are no full stops or commas in this think he's trying to get away from the written word to a certain extent and to make it more as if they're spoken. And I'll talk more about that in a minute, but when he wrote this poem, he said he wrote it for a lover, but once he'd written it,

he realized it could have been a phone call instead of a poem, which there are a lot of poems you can think of which you definitely wouldn't say that about. And we'll come back to it, but a lot of these poems, I wonder if they ever would have been written down, if the mobile phone had been invented when these poems were being written in the late 50s and early

60s because that's what it feels like. It feels like someone going along talking to a friend and wanting to share their life with them. I once sat in a, I was filming somewhere in America and a woman sat alone at a table at night in this outdoor restaurant we were at and she was on her mobile phone and speaking to what seemed to be her partner and she just described, this was pre-Face time. She described the whole meal on a table She described the setting she described us at another table And she just wanted them to be together and the way she was doing Was on the phone

speaking to him as if he was at the table but blindfolded if you like and making him part of the event and I think that happens a lot in lunch poems. I'm going to read the first stanza of personal poem. poem. Now when I walk around at lunchtime I have only two charms in my pocket. An old Roman coin Mike Kanamitsu gave me and a bolt head that broke off a packing case when I was in Madrid. The others never brought me too much luck though they did help keep me in New York against coercion but now I'm happy for a time and interested. Okay now when I walk around at lunchtime I love that I love that so many of these poems seem to happen while he's on his lunch break how fantastic what could be

a better who might bother eating when you can write a poem? Now when I walk around at lunchtime I have only two charms in my pocket. Suggestion that he used to have a lot more which gives him a sort of a... I don't know a strange... not otherworldly would be wrong but someone who isn't frightened to talk about is Peccadillo's carrying lucky charms. So what are the charms an old Roman coin Mike Kanamitsu gave me. Mike Kanamitsu was an artist of the time and an artist who exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, mainly through the championing of Frank Ohara. An old Roman coin Mike Kanamitsu gave me and a bolt head that broke off a packing case when I was in

Madrid. Again, it's all very throw away. I don't really care about these things. It's an old Roman coin, like you can get a new one, and a bald head that broke off a packing case when I was in Madrid. It's look I'm not you know I'm not looking for rabbits foot things I'm looking for just things idiosyncratic things that bring back a memory and references to Europe and the suggested sophistication of Europe especially France but here Spain obviously they are always sparking a

Boltshead that broke off a packing case when I was in Madrid the others never bought me too much luck though They did help keep me in New York against coercion. So it sounds like someone was trying to persuade him to leave New York, but New York seems to be not just outside Franco-Horror, but inside him as well. New York is absolutely crucial to these poems I would say. Though they did help keep me in New York against coercion but now I'm happy for a time and interested and that is a very Frank O'Hara statement.

I'm happy, qualified by it, for a time and interested. I'm not always interested. I'm not always interested. I need something to make me interested and you better do your best or I'm out of here. That's the kind of tone. Next answer. This is a bit longer but I think you can get away with longer readings with Frank O'Hara because it's so joyous to the ear. I walk through the luminous humidity passing the house of Seagram with its wet and its lounges and the construction to the left that closed the sidewalk. If I ever get to be a construction worker I'd like to have a silver hat please and get to Moriarty's

where I wait for Leroy and hear who wants to be a mover and shaker. The last five years my batting average is 0.16 that's that and Leroy comes in and tells me Miles Davis was clubbed 12 times last night outside Birdland by a cop. A lady asked us for a nickel for a terrible disease but we don't give her one. We don't like terrible diseases. Then and that's the end of that stanza. Forgive me if I at any point slightly lapse into a sort of a New York gay accent. I know that's unacceptable, but it exudes from these pages, alphaiti. I walk through the luminous humidity. You see he can't, he doesn't want to be poetic but he can't

completely eradicate it. Luminous humidity. If you've been in New York when there's that thick humidity but all this sparkle around you it's a good description. I walk through the luminous humidity passing the house of Seagram which is a big Park Avenue skyscraper with its wet and its lounges. There are two pools on the plaza of the house of Seagram which he can only be bothered to describe as it's wet. And its lounges, I think, are not actual those things that you lie on. They are the people that sit around those pools.

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But doesn't this feel like a mobile phone conversation that you could be having with someone? I walked through the luminous humidity passing the house of Seagram with its wet and its lounges and the construction to the left to close the sidewalk. Just the sort of thing that you'd mention, oh you know that bit where you can't, you have to get off the pavement. And then the total fantasy aside, if I ever get to be a construction worker, I'd like to have a silver hat, please. And get to Moriarty's, there are loads of place references, as they say in these poems,

where I wait for Leroy, this is the Leroy Jones, the American poet and activist that I spoke of earlier. And here who wants to be a mover and shaker. So this is going to be a regular conversation in this kind of hip New York artistic literary society. who wants to be a mover and shaker and then he throws in a baseball reference the last five years my batting average is 016 that's that so I'm not gonna be a mover and shaker he was probably the ultimate mover and shaker in that New York artistic group but he's not going to own up to that. 016 as a batting average, by the way, is like almost unbelievably low. They don't get that low.

Good would be sort of batting, if you were hitting 300, you'd be doing great, but 016, 016, however it's said, he's saying that, boy, I'm not a mover and shaker, disingenuously. And Leroy comes in and tells me Miles Davis was clubbed 12 times last night outside Birdland by a cop, a lady asks us for a nickel for a terrible disease, but we don't give her one, we don't like terrible diseases. So all this stuff about I've got my charms and I'm passing the House of Seagram and they've closed the sidewalk, oh I'd love a silver hat if I was a construction worker, it's all very trivial. But now Leroy comes in and tells me Miles Davis, Miles Davis obviously the sort of jazz legend, was clubbed 12 times last night outside Birdland,

Birdland being a jazz club. So a lady asked for a nickel for a terrible disease but we don't give her one, We don't like terrible diseases. That's obviously a joke. She wants a nickel because she's got a terrible disease, but he's suggesting she's selling terrible diseases. That's the joke. A lady asks us for a nickel for a terrible disease, but we don't give her one. We don't like terrible diseases.

Then, so we're moving on in the midst of all this, I'd like a silver hat, and they've closed the sidewalk. There's a terrible story from a black writer about Miles Davis being clubbed 12 times by a cop and a woman begging for money because she's got a terrible disease and they seem to be just dashed off like the silver hat and the closure of the pavement and I think that gets a bit scary then you think hold on is there any soul to this or is this a very shallow, almost callous character that's talking here? This Frank O'Hara guy. Okay, then is the ending of that stanza and it takes us on to the final stanza.

We go eat some fish and some ale. It's cool, but crowded. We don't like Lionel Trilling we decide. We like Don Allen. We don't like Henry James so much. We like Herman Melville. We don't want to be in the poet's walk in San Francisco even. We just want to be rich and walk on girders in our silver hats. I wonder if one person out of the eight million is thinking of me as I shake hands with Leroy and buy a strap for my wristwatch and go back to work happy at the thought. Possibly so. So it continues this list of things, the I do this and I do that. We go eat some fish and some ale, this is him and Lee right, it's cool but crowded.

So it's a cool joint but is a bit crowded. We don't like Lionel Trilling we decide we like Don Allen. Okay so Lionel Trilling is a literary critic. Don Allen actually edited a book called The New American Poetry, 1945 to 1960, which showcased Frank O'Hara amongst others and Leroy Jones, I think. And I think a lot of people hadn't really heard

of Frank O'Hara until that was published. But I don't think it had been published yet. But they were right to like Don Allen because he was about to change their lives slightly. We don't like Lionel Trilling, we decide we like Don Allen. We don't like Henry James so much, we like Herman Melville. So they've decided their favorite critic and then their favorite novelist.

This is just what we talked about, is what's being told here. We don't wanna be in the Poets Walk in San Francisco even. So there's a kind of a map you can get which shows you where all the great poets of San Francisco hung out and stuff, called I think, actually the Poets' War. But they don't want to be in that. We just want to be rich and walk on girders in our silver hats. It sounds like the drink is starting to get through a bit, doesn't it? That ale. Yeah, we don't want

to be in the Poets' War. We just want to be rich and walk on girders in our silver hats and then this switch I wonder if one person out of the eight million is thinking of me as I shake hands with Leroy and buy a strap for my wristwatch and go back to work happy at the thought possibly so. happy at the thought possibly so. So eight million, I'm guessing being at that time the population of New York. I wonder if one person out of the eight million is thinking of me. And that takes him out of all this flurry, this conversation, all this movement, this crowded restaurant, bar.

I wonder if one person out of the eight million is thinking of me as I shake hands with Leroy and buy a strap for my wristwatch and go back to work happy at the thought possibly so. So there's this surface of triviality, but underneath it all there's something a bit more and the fact that they're talking about novelists and critics suggests some sort of depth, but also that it's just a cool thing to talk about. But it kind of breaks down. I wonder if one person out of the 8 million

is thinking of me. And suddenly, all that sort of bravado, all the joke telling, all the slightly, it seems to me, slightly forged uncaring is stripped away and we see someone talking about love and Ohara says as I said earlier that this is a love poem and he realizes that he could have phoned the lover instead of writing the poem. But what he's sort of done, in that mobile phone way I was talking about, is he has included the lover,

just like that woman did who was sitting at that table in that outdoor restaurant. Ohara has included the lover by telling him exactly where he went, who he met, what they talked about, and at the end how his thoughts went to that lover and how it made him happy that that man who he loves might possibly be thinking of him in all the eight million options of New York people he might be thinking about. Now what's especially significant about this poem is that this meeting that these two have, Leroy Jones and Frank O'Hara, what supposedly happened was this. It was August 27th, 1959, we are told, and O'Hara had written this love poem,

or was in the process of writing it, and as say I thought I could have phoned this through. And at that point Leroy Jones was telling him that he was writing a sort of a manifesto for this book that Don Allen was putting together which wasn't yet out, the New American Poetry in 1945 to 60, and that they were all supposed to write a manifesto, a sort of explanation and justification of their poetry. And that wasn't very Frank O'Hara. So he sort of knocked up a quick manifesto, which as you can imagine, was incredibly arch, slightly sarcastic and postmodern

which was his general tone and which permeates these poems and he called this new movement personism and as he put it he, personism puts the poem squarely between the poet and the person. What does he mean by that? Well, he goes on to say, the poem is at last between two persons instead of two pages. And I think what he's talking about is something that I have talked about on these podcasts before but I didn't know it was a thing of Frank O'Hara's specifically and I'm sure it's been around before him but he really believed it seems that a poem was a conversation between two people and

every reader becomes a new person in that setup. So there's the poem in the middle, Frank O'Hara on the other side and originally the loved one who it was written for, but now me and now you the listener, we're all moving around and we're all becoming the other person and we're all finding ourselves in that poem, just as Ohara is in the poem. The poem isn't fixed, it's constantly moving and readjusting with each new reader. That is what I think he's saying. Personism, the personist poem stays alive in the present, I suppose, because every new reader revitalises it in some way. Of course he couldn't put it in a serious, sincere way. And so when he talks about the idea, Franco-Hara, in his manifesto about the reader and the poet meeting in the poem and bringing something of themselves to the poem, he said it was like,

well, how can I put this, a gay threesome, and with the poem in the middle, and the poem has the benefit of the people on either side of it. In this case, the reader and the writer. I think the term that he uses is the lucky Pierre, which is a phrase you can Google and is not for me to define here. So that was personism. So personism seems to have been born on this day

at this meeting with Leroy Jones. And it sounds ironic when you read the manifesto, you should read it, it's not long. It sounds ironic and deliberately glib and throw away, but it does, I think, help with the understanding of these lunch poems. They do feel deliberately, in a way, anti-poetic, and that makes them poetic. Don't ask me to explain that exactly. So that was personal poem. Don't ask me to explain that exactly. So that was personal poem.

I don't have time to do another one and that's why I'm going to do another one. I'll keep it brief. So from earlier in the book and dated 1959, I want to end with The Day lady died. First Chonk. Remember what I said about these feelings sometimes like diary entries. It is 12.20 in New York a Friday three days after Bastille Day. Yes it is 1959 and I go get a shoe shine because I will get off the 4.19 in East Hampton at 7.15 and then go get a shoeshine because I will get off the 419 in East Hampton at 7.15 and then go straight to dinner and I don't know the people who will feed me. Right. So it's 12.20 in New York a Friday three days after Bastille Day. That's an interesting way of telling you that it's the

17th of July Bastille Day being the 14th of July. I always remember that because my dad's birthday was the 13th So I don't think I've just been on Wikipedia trying to look smart It is 1220 New York a Friday three days after Bastille Day Why doesn't he say it's the 17th of July if he's going to say all these days and times? I think he can't resist mentioning Bastille Day because it shows his learning. It shows that was a day when the people rose up

against the establishment and he probably sees that as a sort of fun event. And also any excuse to mention anything French because French is so cool and French, Frank O'Hara cannot resist. Yes, it is 1959 and I go get a shoe shine because I will get off the 419 in East Hampton at 715 and then go straight to dinner and I don't know the people who will feed me. He actually says East Hampton he makes East Hampton one word I don't know if that was just how his group said it. But he's gonna get on the 419 train from New York to East Hampton and arrive at 7.15 and go straight to dinner.

And I don't know the people who will feed me. So I don't even know who these people are, but I've been invited to dinner. Of course you have your Franco-Horror. And even before he became a big famous poet, he was just known for being smart and funny and cool, and everyone wanted him at their dinner parties, who was smart and funny and cool, or aspired to be. Then he kind of abandons, I think, that the data in this, the 1220, the train time, the year,

and all that, with that last line, and I don't know the people who will feed me. It sort of suggests, you know, this guy who's going on about times and places, yeah, he also, it seems, leads a pretty free, footloose, fancy, free life. He's going to see these people, he doesn't even know they are, but he's having dinner with them tonight at East Hampton, a pretty cool place to go. So yes, he's giving us all the details, but we're not getting the sense that this is a tight kind of a guy who needs to tell you the time. He's throwing that in because he likes the idea of a poem, I think, containing

whatever is on his mind. Also, I think there's something going to happen at the end of this poem, which means it's quite good to begin in a sort of very knots and bolts material way, but obviously we'll come to that. Right I'm gonna give you a long chunk and there's gonna be a lot of French names in this but you don't need to know anyone just what I would say about this is now he's gonna go shopping he's gonna go shopping for gifts for friends I'm guessing they might be seeing them at the dinner party later. And he's going to shop in Frank O'Hara type places, a bookshop for example, called the Golden Griffin.

But he's just going to tell you what he's purchased. There's a lot of sort of, I suppose, consuming in these poems. I don't know if you're a fan of the American TV show Mad Men I'm not going to pretend I am but Frank O'Hara's poetry featured in Mad Men the Creator and showrunner a guy called Matthew Weiner he was a fan of he is a fan I guess of Frank O'Hara,

and so he incorporated it into the show. And he also actually, he's the guy that voiced that audiobook of Lunch Poems that was and is regularly running in my head. So we know the date, the day, we know what time it is, and we know Frank's plans for the evening. Now we're gonna go shopping with Frank O'Hara. Remember this is called the day lady died. So we're already getting a sense that there's something serious in this but he doesn't like to go to the serious too soon okay I walk up the

muggy street beginning to sun and have a hamburger and a malted and buy an ugly New World writing to see what the poets in Ghana are doing these days. I go to the bank and Miss Stillwagon, first name Linda I once heard, doesn't even look up my balance for once in her life, and in the Golden Griffin I get a little valane for Patsy with drawings by Barnard, although I do think of Hesiod, trans-Richmond Latimore, or Brendan Behan's new play, or Le Balkan or La Negres of Genet, but I don't. I stick with Valaine after practically going to sleep with Quandrinus. So I walk up the Muggy Street beginning to sun. You know that moment when the sun starts to break through the mistiness? I love that.

Again, there's plenty of poetry in Franco Harra's poems, even though I think he's playing it down. It's beautiful. I walk up the Muggy Street beginning to sun. Perhaps it's him that's beginning to song perhaps. He's starting to feel the old himself redden Either way I love it and have a hamburger and a malted and buy an ugly new world

Writing to see what the poets in Ghana are doing these days new world writing in block capital So he's bought I'm guessing a magazine or book new world writing and He calls it an ugly new world writing. He doesn't like the design of it. This is a very artistic guy and He can't help pointing out that this ugly thing and it sounds cynical and funny ugly new world writing but he has bought it. And when he says to see what the poets in Ghana are doing these days, again, it sounds flippant, but he's bought the book.

And then there's this break. There's a couple of lines break, or two half lines break, suggesting to me that he's looking at the book that that's been deliberately put there. So he calls it an ugly new world writing and he binds it to see what the poets in Ghana are doing these days. But that again is his flippant, his glib exterior and actually I think he cares what the poets in Ghana are doing these days. I go to the bank and Miss Stillwagon,

and then we go into Brackets, one of my favorite poetic techniques I think you know. Miss Stillwagon, Brackets, first name Linda I once heard. Closed Brackets, almost like a whispered aside their gossip from Frank Ohara doesn't even look at my balance for once in a life so obviously she's someone that when he walks in there she thinks has he got the money for this withdrawal anyway and in the Golden Griffin I get a little Verlaine Verlaine is a French poet.

Fepazzi, we don't know who that is. I could look it up but it doesn't matter. With drawings by Barnard, French artist, although I do think of Hesiod, that's ancient Greek writer. Trans Richard Latimore. Now that's a point isn't it? It just says t-r-a-n-S dot, which we know means translated by, but if we read the poem out loud, are we supposed to say translated by and on abbreviate that abbreviation? I don't think he cares. That's what it says on the book, although I do think of Hesseard Trans Richard Lattimore. I'm not going to tell you how to say it. Just, you know, that's what it is. Or Brendan Bians knew the Irish playwright, new play, or Le Balkon,

or Le Negre of Genet. So much French in that. Valaine and Bonnard, and Le Balkon, and Le Negre, and Genet. He loves all that stuff. But I don't. So he tells us all those things he might buy, but he doesn't. I stick with Verlaine after practically going to sleep with Quandrinus. So indecision, obviously Quandrinus, though I prefer his use of the word Quandrinus.

He registers the sort of mundanity of telling us about all these I nearly did this So this is a poem not I did this and I did that it's I nearly did this and I nearly did that in this section But the indecision doesn't make him frustrated It makes him bored and there's always the danger that Frank might get bored. So he moves on that Frank might get bored so he moves on. Okay so on to the next stanza and having been in the book shop and having dealt with the brain of one friend he's now going to go I think for the sort of guts of some others and get them some booze and some cigarettes rather than French poetry. And for Mike I just stroll into the Park Lane liquor store

and ask for a bottle of Strayga, and then I go back where I came from to Sixth Avenue and the Tobacco Nist in the Siegfield Theatre and casually ask for a carton of Galois and a carton of Picayunes and a New York Post with... I'm gonna stop there. He's still shopping for friends. New York Post with... I'm gonna stop there.

He's still shopping for friends and for Mike I just stroll into the Park Lane liquor store and ask for a bottle of Strayga, that's Italian booze. These people are much easier to buy for than Pazzi, who's the poetic one. So Mike gets a bottle of Italian booze and then I go about where I came from to Sixth Avenue and the tobacconist in the Siegfield Theatre and casually asked for a carton of Galois cigarettes, but French of course and a carton of Piquet-Unes. Piquet-Unes are, I think they were known as the pride of New Orleans and the packet says extra mild. They aren't.

They are reminiscent of an Egyptian brand called Cleopatra's, which when I bought them was 27 pence for 20, but they rip your throat to shreds. I'm calling that a sidebar on cigarette purchasing. I don't smoke anymore. It's bad for you, I read. Okay, so the tobacco is in the Zeigfield theater and casually asked for a car I tell you what I'm gonna read that through

quickly I want you to get this switch and for my co-just stroll into the part-line liquor store and ask for a bottle of strager and then I go back where I came from to 6th Avenue and the tobacco is in the Zeigfield theater and casually asked for a carton of Galois and a carton of Picayunes and a New York Post with her face on it. And there's a gap there after New York Post with there is a line and a half of white page and that's because all this consumerism, all this glibness, all this just dashing off, all this I did this and I did that, stops because he buys a New York Post and there is a face on the front and you know when you put the telly on and the face of a celebrity

comes up on the news and you think oh my, I remember it with Elvis, I remember it with Groucho Marx, we've all got someone who we saw. I suppose now you just get an alert. But you'd have the news on sometimes, maybe with the sound turned down and you think, oh, why are they on the news? It can only be one thing okay so and a New York Post with her face on it and then there's this gap and then the last four lines and I am sweating a lot by now and thinking of leaning on

the John Doerr in the five Spot while she whispered a song along the keyboard to Mal Waldron and everyone and I stopped breathing. So we don't know who's died. There's no name in this but the poem is called The Day Lady Died and I think anyone who read that poem for the first time would be reminded that Billie Holiday the American jazz singer was also known as Lady Day and also right at the end in that last line Mal Waldron is referenced you know Frank likes a he likes a name and Mal Waldron was Billie Holiday's regular piano accompanist, certainly in her later years.

And Frank O'Hara saw her in her later years at the Five Spot, which is a sort of a jazz cafe. And when he sees her face, suddenly all the purchasing, all the movement, everything stops and it just becomes about his sense of loss and he's taken back to seeing Billie Holiday at the Five Spot and I am sweating a lot by now. We don't know whether that's all this shopping activity or whether he's been so shaken by seeing this new story This seems to me is the flip side to Lana Turner has collapsed

He saw that and it made him laugh. It brightened his day This day didn't need brightening really the last one had rain and snow And all that going on and then he sees the Lana Turner headline and it makes everything bright and funny. In this day shopping for friends he's got a dinner appointment that night it's all quite exciting and he's bouncing around and then the whole glib mask falls off and he is left with this there's this total switch into the shock of finding out that Billie Holiday has died and he's taken back to seeing her life and I'm sweating a lot by now and thinking of leaning on the John door John being a toilet leaning on the John door, John being a toilet, leaning on the John

door in the five spot while she whispered a song along the keyboard. This was in her latter years and her voice had deteriorated a lot so it seems and you can still hear it on the later albums. So she's whispering a song along the keyboard to Mal Waldron, her accompanist, and everyone and I stop breathing. We don't know how do we read that? Whispered a song along the keyboard to Mal Waldron and everyone? Or is it that she whispered a song along the keyboard to Mal Waldron and everyone and I stopped breathing, so everyone in the club stopped breathing. Probably all those things. It was one of those magical

moments. We all remember them, I think, from gigs we've seen. And I stopped breathing is the last three words, however you read that previous bit. And it's an ending, it feels like an ending. The idea of stopping breathing, obviously relevant to this announcement, but also all the chatter, the chatter of these poems, it stops here. And genuine shock and sadness silences our fabulous narrator.

Okay, that's it. That was probably way too long, but that's how I am. I don't want to tell you, but I should tell you that Frank O'Hara was holidaying on Fire Island, which is an island just off the coast of New York, July 1966, and his taxi broke down. And he was on the beach in the dark, and he was hit by someone driving a beach boggy in the dark and he died the next day, aged 40, in hospital,

which, yes, of course, was a tragic loss. It's almost impossible to imagine him dead because there's so much life in these poems. And maybe he isn't dead as far as literature is concerned. You can pick up lunch poems for £6.99 and I think it might be, you can get it free on Audible even. Wow. I mean, I don't normally do prices. That's what happens when you start reading Ohara. You go into all the details. I think he's sensational. I am currently infatuated with him.

See if he happens to you too. Thank you for listening to Frank Skinner's Poetry Podcast. Don't forget to follow so you never miss an episode. See you next week.