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paul_viaf's review
3.0
I found this to be a fine work. The cosmopolitan outlook seems based in too much materialism & panders to the bourgeoisie. I love to be cultured & revel in grandeur just as much as anybody, but I also love being humble & the thought of giving pleases me more than the thought of celebrating riches. All in all, it's a very good read. Experimental & exploratory, just the way I like my poetry.
joannaautumn's review
4.0
"The stars blink like a hairnet that was dropped on a seat and now it is lying in the alley behind the theater where my play is echoed by dying voices.
I am really a woodcarver and my words are love which willfully parades in its room, refusing to move."
I had no idea Frank O'Hara existed until a few hours ago. Thank God for random moments in life when you stumble on a writer, a poet even, that writes this good. Seriously though, his poems have that fluidity and structure that makes people interested in looking beneath the surface. But even if they don't — these poems are just wonderful to read aloud.
aryash's review
5.0
so so good. read it , re-read it. don't necessarily know how to say how much i loved these poems. also, having a coke with you is romance <3
donasbooks's review
5.0
I read a softcover copy of LUNCH POEMS by Frank O'Hara.
Not too many people read poetry these days, so I will resist my urge to analyze the style of the poems I found in this slim volume. But I will say I interpret this collection as Frank's love letter to a city for whom he had very strong and mixed feelings. I'm talking of course about New York.
LUNCH POEMS will never stop amazing me. This reading, I am struck, completely bowled over by these lines from "Galanta": the about-to-be / dead surrounding the already surrounded folk- / hero with a veil of automobile accidents / p79
These lines are more than just achingly beautiful, they are apparently prescient. Frank O'Hara died a very young man, tragically, a victim of a hit and run. He had just begun to enjoy his well-deserved renown and reap the rewards of being an established twentieth century writer when he was killed.
O'Hara will always be one of my favorite poets. He is a tragic, romantic figure. His poetry finds what is both tragic and romantic in everything, and I love that. His poetry is easy to understand, while it is also wildly absurd and surrealistic. He is everyone's poet.
Rating:
Not too many people read poetry these days, so I will resist my urge to analyze the style of the poems I found in this slim volume. But I will say I interpret this collection as Frank's love letter to a city for whom he had very strong and mixed feelings. I'm talking of course about New York.
LUNCH POEMS will never stop amazing me. This reading, I am struck, completely bowled over by these lines from "Galanta": the about-to-be / dead surrounding the already surrounded folk- / hero with a veil of automobile accidents / p79
These lines are more than just achingly beautiful, they are apparently prescient. Frank O'Hara died a very young man, tragically, a victim of a hit and run. He had just begun to enjoy his well-deserved renown and reap the rewards of being an established twentieth century writer when he was killed.
O'Hara will always be one of my favorite poets. He is a tragic, romantic figure. His poetry finds what is both tragic and romantic in everything, and I love that. His poetry is easy to understand, while it is also wildly absurd and surrealistic. He is everyone's poet.
Rating:
rj_readsbooks's review
5.0
Lunch Poems was commissioned in 1959 by City Lights but was published in 1964 as number 19 in their Pocket Poets series, which was started off with Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl and Other Poems’.
As the name implies, this was a collection of poems that Frank O’Hara wrote on his lunch breaks walking around New York City. The book is about connection and intimacy in the city, all told through O’Hara’s conversational style.
I’ve been a fan of O’Hara’s poetry for a long time, having been introduced to him through this collection long before I owned a copy. Reading Lunch Poems you feel like you’re having an intimate chat with your best friend at a coffee shop before you both have to get back to work. I would definitely recommend it, especially right now.
As the name implies, this was a collection of poems that Frank O’Hara wrote on his lunch breaks walking around New York City. The book is about connection and intimacy in the city, all told through O’Hara’s conversational style.
I’ve been a fan of O’Hara’s poetry for a long time, having been introduced to him through this collection long before I owned a copy. Reading Lunch Poems you feel like you’re having an intimate chat with your best friend at a coffee shop before you both have to get back to work. I would definitely recommend it, especially right now.