Pic of the Day

Nonno’s Poem in “The Night of the Iguana”

Nonno’s Poem

By Tennessee Williams 

 

How calmly does the orange branch

Observe the sky begin to blanch

Without a cry, without a prayer,

With no betrayal of despair,

 

Sometime while night obscures the tree

The zenith of its life will be

Gone past forever, and from thence

A second history will commence.

 

A chronicle no longer gold,

A bargaining with mist and mould,

And finally the broken stem

The plummeting to earth; and then

 

An intercourse not well designed

For beings of a golden kind

Whose native green must arch above

The earth’s obscene, corrupting love.

 

And still the ripe fruit and the branch

Observe the sky begin to blanch

Without a cry, without a prayer,

With no betrayal of despair.

 

O Courage, could you not as well

Select a second place to dwell,

Not only in that golden tree

But in the frightened heart of me?

 

Nearly 30 years ago while I was still in high school, I was attending a summer honors program at the University of Alabama. (It was a momentous summer in many ways, but those are stories for another time.) We took three college classes along with other summer students at Alabama, and every week, we had to attend several honors seminars. One of those seminars was about Tennessee Williams. 

 

The next week, we were taken by bus down to Montgomery to see Williams’s play “The Night of the Iguana” at the Alabama Shakespeare FestivaL. I’ve seen many plays and musicals at ASF, and while not all of the plays were great (I always found the plays that were part of their Southern Writers Series to be godawful), they were all very well produced. I was awed by “The Night of the Iguana” because they made it rain onstage. This might not sound that impressive to everyone, but I always thought it was one of the coolest things.

 

If you are not familiar with “The Night of the Iguana,” the play portrays the story of Reverend Shannon, a defrocked Episcopal clergyman gone astray, torn between his passions and his devotion, who leads a bus-load of middle-aged Baptist women on a religious-themed tour of the Mexican coast and comes to terms with past demons in re-evaluating his life.

 

Throughout the play, in a secondary story about a woman, Hannah, and her aging poet-grandfather, the grandfather attempts to finish a poem he feels will be his masterpiece. The poem comes at the end of the play when the grandfather recites his “last” poem while Hannah transcribes it for him. The grandfather dies a few moments later.

 

The poem represents Tennessee Williams’s poetic view of human nature and the human story. Williams wrote many flawed or tragic characters who might survive, adapt, or make significant change if they only had the courage and confidence that goes with that important quality. Tennessee Williams is not to everyone’s taste, but I have always greatly admired his writing. Of Mississippi literary figures, I consider Williams to be the greatest by far.

Pic of the Day

Slept Late

I slept later than usual this morning. I’d not been feeling great last night and went to bed early. Isabella tried to wake me a few times, but I just didn’t get up until my alarm went off. Anyway, have a great day.

Pic of the Day

The Way

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

—John 14:1-6

 “‘Yo soy el camino, la verdad y la vida,’ Juan, catorce seis.” When I took Spanish in high school, we had to memorize a Bible verse in Spanish every week. The first one we learned, and the only one I can still remember, is John 14:6. This verse has always stuck with me, not just because it was the first one I leaned in Spanish class, but also because of the message. Sometimes, in life, it’s no doubt that we get lost. We are not going towards the right path anymore. We even tend to give up in finding the right place. However, Jesus tells us that we shouldn’t let our hearts be troubled and just believe in Jesus who is the way, the truth, and the life. We might not know where we are going but we must keep in mind that there’s Jesus who’s willing to guide us at any time of the day. We should have faith in Him, and we’ve got nothing to worry. He will bring us in the right place. With Him, everything is possible.

John 14:1-6 is meant to give us comfort and hope. This passage is part of a larger story of the Last Supper, and his disciples are greatly distressed that their Savior is going to leave them. They believe they will be lost without him. Jesus responds to the anxiety of his disciples by saying, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me” (14:1). Jesus calls them back to this fundamental relationship of trust and assures them that he is not abandoning them. Rather, he is returning to his Father, which is good news for them. In speaking of his ascension to the Father, Jesus assures his disciples that this is also their destination. There are many dwellings in his Father’s house, and he goes to prepare a place for them, so that they will be with him and dwell with him in his intimate relationship with the Father (14:2-3).

When Jesus says that they know the way to the place where he is going (14:4), Thomas, like most characters in the Gospel, takes Jesus quite literally. He wants directions, a road map to this place (14:5). Jesus responds by saying that he himself is the way: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (14:6).

When we get lost in life, which can be very hectic, stressful, and even disorienting, if we believe in Jesus, follow His teachings, we will never be lost. When we’re lost, Jesus can and will show us the way. He tells us to “believe in God, believe also in Me.” There are times we all feel lost and in despair, know that Jesus is the way through our troubles.

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Moment of Zen: The Great Outdoors

Pic of the Day

Creatures of Habit

Cats are often a creature of habit. some have their routines, and they stick to those routines very closely. Back when I was teaching in Alabama, my previous cat, Victoria, and I had our afternoon routines. She used to sit in an upstairs window watching and waiting for me to come home, then when I opened the door, she’d be sitting at the top of the stairs waiting for me.

This was her perfect vantage point for seeing through the window above the front door, and there she would wait. Occasionally, she’d come down the stairs to greet me, but more often than not, she would sit there and wait for me to come upstairs. I would be so exhausted from teaching, and she wanted me to come upstairs and take a nap with her. I’d go upstairs and to lie on the bed and take a nap; she’d come lie down beside me so that the bottom half of her body was by my side and the upper half would be lying across my chest. Them, we’d take a nap. She would get quite upset if I did not take my nap with her in the afternoon. Although, she had one unbreakable rule, I had to keep a shirt on. She hated laying on naked skin. Go figure.

Isabella has her habits too. She wants me to get up around 4 am to feed her, which I admit often annoys me. However, she realizes when I really need a little extra sleep, and in those days, she can be a bit more patient. But that’s not her only habit. She too will greet me at the door when I come home. She’ll also demand where I should be at what time of the evening. If I go into my bedroom before 9:30 pm, she comes and taps my arm to try to get me to go back into the living room. However, if I stay in the living room past 10 pm, she does the same thing, but wants me to go into the bedroom and go to bed.

We also have another routine each morning. I always thought it was really just for me, but I realize yesterday morning, that it’s become part of her routine. Each day as I’m leaving for work, she’ll be lying on her pile of blankets, and I’ll walk up to her, scratch her on the head and say, “Bye bye, Isabella. I have to go to work. Be a good girl today.” Yes, I know it’s silly, but it’s what I do. And each day as I say it, she looks up at me and meows like she’s telling me to have a good day. More likely it’s to say, you better come home on time. Yesterday morning, she was not on her blanket, and I wasn’t quite sure where she was, though I’d seen her only a few minutes before. So, I said to the room, “Bye bye, Isabella. Be a good girl.” I was not expecting a response, but she came running up to me and meowed. Where she came from, I don’t know, but I reached down and scratched her head. A few minutes later (I have a blink camera so I can check in on her while I’m not at home), she crawled up onto her blankets and went to sleep.  I thought it was kind of sweet that she was afraid she’d miss me telling her goodbye yesterday morning. 

Anyway, here’s your Isabella pic of the week:

Pic of the Day

Feeling Better

I woke up this morning feeling better. Thank goodness because I have things I have to do at work today. It doesn’t mean my headache is gone, I’m feeling the effects of a postdrome or migraine “hangover,” which is an apt description of how I feel once the worst of my migraines ease. I'm usually achy, mentally foggy, and physically drained. I wish I could just go to bed and be able to fully recover from my migraine, but, as I said, it’s not possible with what I have to do at work today. Most of what I have to do is this morning, so if I still don’t feel well, I could possibly take the afternoon off. We’ll see.

Pic of the Day

Another Migraine

With temperatures plunging from 63 degrees yesterday to 26 degrees today as a storm front moves through, it was no surprise for me that I developed a migraine last night and that said migraine is still with me this morning. I had really bad photophobia last night, and it’s not much better this morning, so thankfully, it is raining so the sun won’t be out and it should be a full gray day. It’s strange: the rain caused my migraine, but I’m thankful for the rain because it will keep it from being a bright, sunshiny day. It’s definitely a catch-22.

Pic of the Day

Self-Portrait as Combination Taco Bell / Pizza Hut / KFC

  

Self-Portrait as Combination Taco Bell / Pizza Hut / KFC

By Aaron Tyler Hand

 

the unholy trinity of suburban late-night salvation 

barring seemingly endless options of worship

 

bean burrito breadsticks and mashed potatoes 

or a soft taco pan pizza and a buttered biscuit

 

an unimaginable combination of food flavors 

for people not ready to go home to their parents

 

and yet none of the options feel quite right 

so maybe I should call it Self-Portrait as idling

 

in a drive-thru with your friends crammed 

across the sunken bench seats avoiding

 

the glow of the check engine light with black tape 

pressed with a precision unseen anywhere else

 

in their lives as a fractured voice says don’t worry 

take your time and order whenever you’re ready

 

from behind a menu backlit like the window 

inside of a confessional booth as the hands

 

of the driver open up like a collection basket 

for the wadded-up bills and loose change

 

that slowly stack up as the years go by 

and I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be

 

in this analogy but I know about masking 

warning signs and hearing out of tune

 

voices scream WE’RE THE KIDS WHO FEEL 

LIKE DEAD ENDS so instead I’ll call it Self-

 

Portrait as From Under the Cork Tree 

or maybe even Self-Portrait as whatever

 

album people listen to when they love 

their friends and still want to feel connected

 

to the grass walls of a teenage wasteland 

that they can’t help but run away from

 

 

About This Poem

 

“I love using poetry to capture the malaise of growing up in the suburbs. When you spend your life in a place that feels defined by its monotony, it’s hard to find a sense of personal identity that isn’t mass produced. In order to feel like you have any control over your life, you have to find the small rebellions that lead to a sense of belonging. That aimlessness and escapism is what I tried to capture in this poem.”—Aaron Tyler Hand

 

This poem was the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day yesterday. While I found the title intriguing, I found the scene it sets nostalgic. I did not grow up in the suburbs, but in rural Alabama;, however, when I was in undergraduate and graduate school, I remember the late nights of getting Taco Bell, though in graduate school, it was often Krystal’s, which was open 24 hours and a block from my first apartment.

 

The title itself made me think of probably what all of us thought the first time we saw a combination “Taco Bell / Pizza Hut / KFC”: fast food with a personality disorder. It does seem kind of lost in what it is trying to do. I usually only see Taco Bells and KFCs together these days, but it’s still an odd combination.

 

 

About the Poet

 

Aaron Tyler Hand (@airinhand) is a creative writer with an MFA from Texas State University. He has previously been published in San Antonio Express-News, Houston Chronicle, Faultline Journal, GASHER Journal, HASH Journal, Funicular Magazine, Meniscus, among others. In addition to his own creative writing pursuits, Aaron volunteers his time to the prison teaching non-profit Rough Draft and hosts the poetry podcast The Personhood Project.

Pic of the Day

Earth Day

Earth Day, which takes place on April 22, dates back to 1970, when U.S.-based organizers were hoping to bring awareness to the environmental degradation they were witnessing across the country. Since then, recognition of the holiday has expanded to more than 190 countries who have added Earth Day to their calendar.

The holiday is both a grim reminder of the work that must be done and a celebration of the progress that has been made when it comes to climate change efforts. It's also been the catalyst for actions including the creation of international climate agreements and environmental agencies.

This year’s theme is Planet vs. Plastics, which calls on government leaders, businesses, and everyday people to reduce plastic production by 60% by 2040. It is also calling for the full elimination of single use plastics by the end of this decade.

Pic of the Day

Gates

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

—Matthew 7:13-14

 

I grew up in rural Alabama, and my house was surrounded by a pasture. There were a lot of pastures around where I lived, and I remember vividly the numerous ways to enter a pasture. If you were on foot, you could climb over or under the fence, but if you were in a vehicle, you either had to cross a cattle gap or get out, open the gate, drive through and then get back out of the vehicle and close the gate. I always found it so tedious to have to get in and out of a vehicle to open and close the gates. It was a lot easier if there was a passenger, which I most often was, who could handle the gates when we’d come to them.

 

When I came across the picture above, it made me consider the symbolism of gates in the Bible. To me, I most often think of Matthew 7:13-14 when I think of gates. In this passage, which is part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is speaking to a large crowd about how people are often more interested in appearing outwardly to be religious by practicing rituals that others could see. They were using the wide gate, which signifies a dependence on ourselves and obtaining our own self-righteousness through trying to do things outwardly to impress others, rather than a more personal relationship with God.

 

The wide gate in many ways represents our culture today, characterized by being self-absorbed and wanting to appear outwardly better than everyone else. Too many people latch onto individual and misinterpreted Bible verses to push forth their own hateful ways while also trying to appear pious. The wider gate is a popularity contest, and it causes people to latch onto politicians and news media that align with their own hateful beliefs and reinforce those beliefs by perverting the Word of God.

 

The narrow gate that Jesus was referring to is a personal relationship with God, not being outwardly pious by following religious rituals and sacraments to try and earn your way to heaven. It means not wasting time and energy trying to appear outwardly in a way to be accepted by the pious culture of many churches, but rather asking the God to live in you, to change your heart, and transform you into the person He made you to be. God sees the inward appearance of our heart, not our outward appearance to others. Even at the risk of being unpopular, we should follow the teachings of Jesus to live a life of giving help, hope, and happiness to others.

 

Narrow gates are also easier to defend because they use lesser material and can this concentrate the defense greater than the massive amount of material needed for larger gates. It takes less to defend a narrow gate because it limits the attack of the enemy. The wider gate allows an enemy to attack with a greater force that can weaken the defensive purposes of a gate. Wider gates need greater materials to defend against an enemy. The gates of the ancient cities are not as we imagine today’s gates, but massive gates made of stone, iron, brass, or wood frequently sheeted with metal. They were tall and wide. The gate of Herod’s “which is called Beautiful” (Acts 3:2) was made of brass and required twenty men to close it. These gates were opened during the day to allow the citizens to come and go but were generally closed and barred at night as a safety measure to keep out enemy attacks. Whoever controlled the gates of the stronghold ruled the city.

 

Gates can be for good or evil. They can serve as protection or as a prison. Just as Heaven has gates, so does Hell. Therefore, gates can protect us from evil, or they can keep evil contained. We must shut our open gates against the enemy. If even one gate is open and unprotected, we fall prey to our enemies who seek to oppress us and gain a foothold. God warns us not to give the devil a place to spread evil. Gates of pride, rebellion, false beliefs, or wrong motives, allow evil to erect a fortress giving the enemy a place to establish his camp. We must keep watch over our gates. This means searching through our relationship with God and guarding the gates and doors to our soul and body.

 

When Jesus promised to build His Church, He said Matthew 16:18, “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Understanding the biblical implications of “gates” helps us interpret Jesus’ words. Since a gate was a place where rulers met and counsel was given, Jesus was saying that all the evil plans of Satan himself would never defeat the Church. In Matthew 7:15-16, Jesus warns us to “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.”

Pic of the Day

Nico Coopa is not only a sexy porn star, but he’s also a very talented artist.

Moment of Zen: White Briefs

I love seeing a guy in white briefs.

Guys can also be very sexy in white briefs and a white t-shirt.

…and even sexier in white briefs and a tank top…

…or only a tank top.

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Migraine

Thank goodness I didn’t have to even contemplate going to work today. I developed a migraine not too long after I got to work yesterday, and it was a bad one. I ended up going home after only being at work for three hours. I knew there were three things at the museum that would have only made my migraine worse: 1) 🖥️ I think my computer screen was trying to kill me (even though I have it on the lowest brightness, it still aggravates my migraine), 2) 🔨 one of my coworkers was installing an exhibit and was hammering in shelves so every time I heard the hammer come down, my headache nearly exploded, and 3) 🙄 another coworker said something about one of our other coworkers, and I started to roll my eyes, but I couldn’t because it hurt too much with my migraine centered in my left eye. I end up rolling my eyes a lot at work these days, and I could tell that the day would be filled with more eye rolling than usual.

Anyway, I woke up to the same migraine. Today is a vacation day for me, so I was hoping to feel better. Although my weather app says we will be cloudy all day, our local meteorologist said that we’d actually have sun most of the day. I was hoping to be able to get outside some today and enjoy the sun. However, my migraines always come with really bad photophobia, so at this point, I’m hoping for the cloudy day.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

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Thursday Morning

When I woke up this morning, I fed Isabella, made breakfast, and since it’s Thursday, I watched the new episode of Star Trek: Discovery. It’s a show I can’t multitask while watching, so I didn’t have much time to write a post. By the way, I think Discovery saved the best season for its last season. So far, I’ve enjoyed it more than any other season. I hope that continues.

Well, that’s it for today, have a great Thursday. Here’s your Isabella pic of the week:

In this picture, she’s staring at a robin. Of all the birds and wildlife around where I live, she only pays attention to one other animal: a robin. She’s obsessed with them. If I have a window open, and she hears a robin, she runs to the window as fast as possible. When I took this picture, she and a robin were having a staring contest. It seemed to go on forever until the robin got bored and flew away.

Pic of the Day

If Only…

If I didn’t have classes to teach today, I would have loved to call in sick and go back to bed. However, not only do I have classes to teach, but I spent all afternoon yesterday pulling objects out of storage to use in the class. I got home and was totally exhausted. I woke this morning with my back hurting. Even if I didn’t have classes to teach, I probably wouldn’t call in sick. I work with people who’ll call in sick for the most minor things, including “mental health days,” which basically means the person just didn’t want to go to work that day. I have a better work ethic than that, not that it gets noticed. If I have responsibilities that can’t be postponed, even if it’s something someone else could handle, I take my job seriously. 

Anyway, “Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho; it’s off from work I go.”* I may not “ dig dig dig dig dig dig dig” the “whole day through” like the seven dwarfs in Snow White, but my job “is what I really like to do.”

*Before anyone points it out, I know the lyrics are actually, “Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho; it’s home from work we go.” 

Pic of the Day

Having a Coke with You

Having a Coke with You

By Frank O’Hara

 

is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, 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 faces 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 for 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 marvelous experience

which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I’m telling you about it

About the Poem

 

First published in a small magazine Love, “Having a Coke with You” was also included in the 1965 book Lunch Poems, which I mentioned a few weeks ago. It is a typically spontaneous O'Hara work, unconventional and open-hearted, dashed off with enthusiasm.

 

Frank O'Hara was known as 'a poet among the painters' because of his association with a group of New York artists, the abstract expressionists, with whom he collaborated for a number of years. A livewire and party animal, he worked as an assistant curator at MoMA. Though not prolific, his carefree style, which he termed 'Personism', went against the grain of tradition. He hated literary pretension and wanted his poetry to reflect his dynamic interest in and involvement with cutting-edge cultural activity. Manhattan, his stomping ground, was certainly full of that.

 

"Having A Coke With You" was written when O'Hara returned from a trip to Spain in April 1960 and focused on the intimate relationship between two people enjoying a drink and alludes to art and religion. It's an unorthodox poem that contrasts a beautiful lover with fine art and saintliness. The poem celebrates the mundane and the present moment, contrasting it with the formalism of traditional art. It's conversational tone and colloquial language differ from O'Hara's previous poems, which were often more experimental and abstract. Compared to his earlier works, this poem showcases a shift towards simplicity and accessibility. O'Hara emphasizes the immediate and personal experience, rejecting the grand narratives and artistic conventions of the past. The poem also reflects the cultural shift of the post-war era, where artists sought to break away from traditional forms and engage with everyday life.

 

By praising the beauty and authenticity of everyday moments, "Having a Coke with You" challenges the notion that art must be monumental or grand to be meaningful. Instead, it asserts the value of the ordinary and the subjective experience.

 

 

About the Poet

 

On March 27, 1926, Frank (Francis Russell) O’Hara was born in Maryland. He grew up in Massachusetts, and later studied piano at the New England Conservatory in Boston from 1941 to 1944. O’Hara then served in the South Pacific and Japan as a sonarman on the destroyer USS Nicholas during World War II.

 

Following the war, O’Hara studied at Harvard College, where he majored in music and worked on compositions and was deeply influenced by contemporary music, his first love, as well as visual art. He also wrote poetry at that time and read the work of Arthur Rimbaud, Stéphane Mallarmé, Boris Pasternak, and Vladimir Mayakovsky.

 

While at Harvard, O’Hara met John Ashbery and soon began publishing poems in the Harvard Advocate. Despite his love for music, O’Hara changed his major and left Harvard in 1950 with a degree in English. He then attended graduate school at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and received his MA in 1951. That autumn, O’Hara moved into an apartment in New York. He was soon employed at the front desk of the Museum of Modern Art and continued to write seriously.

 

O’Hara’s early work was considered both provocative and provoking. In 1952, his first volume of poetry, A City Winter, and Other Poems, attracted favorable attention; his essays on painting and sculpture and his reviews for ArtNews were considered brilliant. O’Hara became one of the most distinguished members of the New York School of poets,* which also included Ashbery, James Schuyler, and Kenneth Koch.

 

O’Hara’s association with painters Larry Rivers, Jackson Pollock, and Jasper Johns, also leaders of the New York School, became a source of inspiration for his highly original poetry. He attempted to produce with words the effects these artists had created on canvas. In certain instances, he collaborated with the painters to make “poem-paintings,” paintings with word texts.

O’Hara’s most original volumes of verse, Meditations in an Emergency (1956) and Lunch Poems (1964), are impromptu lyrics, a jumble of witty talk, journalistic parodies, and surrealist imagery.

 

O’Hara continued working at the Museum of Modern Art throughout his life, curating exhibitions and writing introductions and catalogs for exhibits and tours. On July 25, 1966, while vacationing on Fire Island, Frank O’Hara was killed in a sand buggy accident. He was forty years old.

 

 

*About the New York School of Poetry

 

The New York School of poetry began around 1960 in New York City and included poets such as John Ashbery, Barbara Guest, Kenneth Koch, and Frank O’Hara. Heavily influenced by Surrealism and Modernism, the poetry of the New York School was serious but also ironic and incorporated an urban sensibility into much of the work. An excerpt from Ashbery’s poem “My Philosophy of Life” demonstrates this attitude:

Just when I thought there wasn’t room enough
for another thought in my head, I had this great idea—
call it a philosophy of life, if you will. Briefly,
it involved living the way philosophers live,
according to a set of principles. OK, but which ones?

Abstract Expressionist art was also a major influence, and the New York School poets had strong artistic and personal relationships with artists such as Jackson Pollock and Willem DeKooning. Both O’Hara and James Schuyler worked at the Museum of Modern Art, and Guest, Ashbery, and Schuyler were critics for Art News. O’Hara also took inspiration from artists, entitling two poems “Joseph Cornell” and “On Seeing Larry Rivers’ Washington Crossing the Delaware at the Museum of Modern Art.” O’Hara’s poem “Why I am Not a Painter” includes the lines “I am not a painter, I am a poet. / Why? I think I would rather be / a painter, but I am not.”

 

A second generation of New York School poets arose during the 1960s and included Ted Berrigan, Ron Padgett, Anne Waldman, and Joe Brainard. These poets were also influenced by art, and their work contained much of the same humor and collaborative spirit. Their scene grew up around downtown New York and was associated with the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church, a poetry organization that started in the mid-1960s.

The New York School continues to influence poets writing today. Recently published books such as Daniel Kane’s All Poets Welcome: The Lower East Side Poetry Scene in the 1960s and David Lehman’s The Last-Avant Garde: The Making of the New York School of Poets are important histories of this poetic movement that still captures readers today.