http://debianws.lexgopc.com/wiki143/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Lunch_PoemsLunch Poems - Revision history2026-06-02T02:20:29ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.1http://debianws.lexgopc.com/wiki143/index.php?title=Lunch_Poems&diff=8036542&oldid=previmported>SafariScribe: Adding local short description: "1964 Book by Frank O'Hara", overriding Wikidata description "book by Frank O'Hara"2024-02-29T17:10:29Z<p>Adding local <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_description" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:Short description">short description</a>: "1964 Book by Frank O'Hara", overriding Wikidata description "book by Frank O'Hara"</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|1964 Book by Frank O'Hara}}<br />
{{italic title}}<br />
[[File:LunchPoems.jpg|thumb|First edition]]<br />
'''''Lunch Poems''''' is a book of poetry by [[Frank O'Hara]] published in 1964 by [[Lawrence Ferlinghetti]]’s [[City Lights Bookstore|City Lights]], number 19 in their [[Pocket Poets]] series.<ref>Frank O'Hara. ''Lunch Poems''. City Lights, 2001. {{ISBN|0-87286-035-3}}.</ref> The collection was commissioned by Ferlinghetti as early as 1959, but O'Hara delayed in completing it. Ferlinghetti would badger O'Hara with questions like, "How about lunch? I'm hungry." "Cooking", O'Hara would reply.<ref>Marjorie Perloff. ''Frank O'Hara: Poet Among Painters''. University of Chicago Press, 1998. {{ISBN|0-226-66059-1}}, {{ISBN|978-0-226-66059-2}}. pg. 115</ref> O'Hara enlisted the help of [[Donald Allen]] who had published O'Hara's poems in ''[[New American Poetry]]'' in 1960. Allen says in his introduction to ''The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara'', “Between 1960 and 1964 O’Hara and I worked intermittently at compiling ''Lunch Poems'', which in the end became a selection of work dating from 1953 to 1964.”<ref>Frank O’Hara. ''The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara''. Ed. Donald Allen. University of California Press. 1995. {{ISBN|0-520-20166-3}}.</ref><br />
<br />
The poems in this collection contain O'Hara's characteristically breezy tone, containing spontaneous reactions to things happening in the moment. Many of them appear to have been written on O'Hara's lunch hour. The poems contain numerous references to pop culture and literary figures, New York locations, and O'Hara's friends. One common theme is a desire for personal connection, whether the one on one connection of two friends or two lovers or a broader connection to strangers, in the face of tragedy, for example.<ref>William Watkin. ''In the process of poetry: the New York school and the avant-garde''. Bucknell University Press, 2001. {{ISBN|0-8387-5467-8}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8387-5467-2}}. pg. 140.</ref> The following are examples of this:<br />
<br />
“A Step Away From Them” begins, “It’s my lunch hour, so I go / for a walk among the hum-colored / cabs.” He references [[Edwin Denby (poet)|Edwin Denby]], [[Federico Fellini]], the [[Armory Show]], and [[Pierre Reverdy]], and New York locations like Juliet’s Corner and the Manhattan Storage Warehouse. He talks about his friends [[Jackson Pollock]], [[John La Touche (musician)|John Latouche]], and [[Violet Ranney Lang|Bunny Lang]] who have died and says, “Is the earth as full as life was full, of them?”<br />
<br />
“The Day Lady Died” begins, “It is 12:20 in New York a Friday / three days after [[Bastille Day|Bastille day]], yes / it is 1959 and I go get a shoeshine.” In the poem, he references [[Paul Verlaine]], New World Writing, [[Brendan Behan]], [[Jean Genet]]’s plays ''[[The Balcony]]'' and ''[[The Blacks (play)|The Blacks]]'' and New York locations like the Golden Griffin and the [[Ziegfeld Theatre (1927)|Ziegfeld Theatre]]. At the end of the poem, he discovers that [[Billie Holiday]] is dead and remembers having heard her sing, recalling that “she whispered a song along the keyboard / and everyone and I stopped breathing.”<br />
<br />
“Personal Poem” begins, “Now when I walk around at lunchtime / I have only two charms in my pocket.” It is about O’Hara’s conversation with [[LeRoi Jones]] about [[Miles Davis]], [[Lionel Trilling]], [[Henry James]], and [[Herman Melville]]. At the end, he says, “I wonder if one person out of 8,000,000 is thinking of me.”<br />
<br />
A 50th Anniversary Edition of ''Lunch Poems'' was released in 2014 ([[City Lights Publishers]].)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
{{Portal|Biography}}<br />
{{wikiquote}}<br />
*[http://www.frankohara.org/ frankohara.org Official home page]<br />
*[http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5970/ Groundbreaking Book: ''Lunch Poems'' by Frank O'Hara at Poets.org]<br />
<br />
[[Category:American poetry collections]]<br />
[[Category:Beat Generation]]<br />
[[Category:1964 poetry books]]<br />
[[Category:City Lights Publishers books]]</div>imported>SafariScribe