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Frank O'Hara

Frank O'Hara Quotes

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Famous Frank O'Hara Quotes

“Too many poets act like a middle-aged mother trying to get her kids to eat too much cooked meat, and potatoes with drippings (tears). I don't give a damn whether they eat or not. Forced feeding leads to excessive thinness (effete). Nobody should experience anything they don't need to, if they don't need poetry bully for them. I like the movies too. And after all, only Whitman and Crane and Williams, of the American poets, are better than the movies.”

IfsNeedsGivingShouldTryingKidsMotherToo MuchMiddleTearsPoetDamnMeatFeedingBullyPotatoesMiddle AgedDrippingDon't Give A DamnCranesI Don't Give A DamnThinnessMeat And Potatoes
Author:Frank O'Hara
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“My Heart I'm not going to cry all the time nor shall I laugh all the time, I don't prefer one "strain" to another. I'd have the immediacy of a bad movie, not just a sleeper, but also the big, overproduced first-run kind. I want to be at least as alive as the vulgar. And if some aficionado of my mess says "That's not like Frank!," all to the good! I don't wear brown and grey suits all the time, do I? No. I wear workshirts to the opera, often. I want my feet to be bare, I want my face to be shaven, and my heart--you can't plan on the heart, but the better part of it, my poetry, is open.”

IfsWantFirstsHeartKindBigsRunningFacesLaughingAlivePlansFeetCryMy HeartSuitsMessBrownPoetry IsOperaFrankGreyVulgarStrainImmediacySleepersBad Movies
Book:The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara
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“I don't believe in god, so I don't have to make elaborately sounded structures. ... Pain always produces logic, which is very bad for you. ... As for measure and other technical apparatus, that's just common sense: if you're going to buy a pair of pants you want them to be tight enough so everyone will want to go to bed with you. There's nothing metaphysical about it.”

IfsWantBelieveEnoughPainCommonProduceBedLogicStructureDon't BelieveCommon SensePairsBelieve In GodPantsMetaphysical
Author:Frank O'Hara
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“If I am ever to find these trees meaningful I must have you by the hand. As it is, they stretch dusty fingers into an obscure sky, and the snow looks up like a face dirtied with tears. Should I cry out and see what happens? There could only be a stranger wandering in this landscape, cold, unfortunate, himself frozen fast in wintry eyes.”

IfsShouldLooksHandsHappensEyeFacesTreeSkyCryTearsColdFingersStrangerMeaningfulSnowWanderLandscapeLook UpShould IUnfortunateObscureFrozen
Book:Meditations in an Emergency
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“Now I am quietly waiting for the catastrophe of my personality to seem beautiful again, and interesting, and modern. The country is grey and brown and white in trees, snows and skies of laughter always diminishing, less funny not just darker, not just grey. It may be the coldest day of the year, what does he think of that? I mean, what do I? And if I do, perhaps I am myself again.”

IfsThinkingYearsMayMeanDoeCountrySeemsBeautifulWaitingWhiteInterestingTreeSkyModernPersonalityLaughterSnowBrownCatastropheGreyDays Of The Year
Book:The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara
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