12 Poems by Frank O’Hara

When Frank O’Hara died in 1966 at the age of forty, he left behind a vibrant community of writers in New York City—one he had already begun to shape and influence. Ted Berrigan memorialized O’Hara in The East Village Other (the obituary is included in full below), writing, “The loss of the poet can be compared only to the equally tragic early deaths of Guillaume Apollinaire and Vladimir Mayakovsky, the two poets in this century perhaps closest to Frank O’Hara in style, spirit, and stature.”

O’Hara himself reflected on his distinctive style in Personism: A Manifesto (also included below), explaining:

Personism has nothing to do with philosophy, it’s all art. It does not have to do with personality or intimacy, far from it! But to give you a vague idea, one of its minimal aspects is to address itself to one person (other than the poet himself), thus evoking overtones of love without destroying love’s life-giving vulgarity, and sustaining the poet’s feelings towards the poem while preventing love from distracting him into feeling about the person.

During his lifetime, O’Hara published five books of poetry and contributed to numerous literary magazines. We’ve curated twelve of his poems—both published during his lifetime and posthumously—alongside writings about O’Hara by Ted Berrigan, Joseph LeSueur, and Joe Brainard. These works, originally featured in various literary magazines, are now part of Reveal Digital’s Little Magazine collection. We encourage you to explore—everything is freely available on JSTOR.

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“Personism: A Manifesto” published in Audit/Poetry, 1964

“Poem,” published in Sum, June 1964

“Joe’s Jacket,” published in Grist (the In Memoriam: Frank O’Hara issue), 1966

Published posthumously, “Joe’s Jacket” is followed in this issue of Grist by Ted Berrigan’s “Frank O’Hara Dead at 40,” a version of which was first published in an August 1966 issue of The East Village Other, included below.

4 Poems, published in The World, November 1968

“John Button,” published in Manroot, August 1970

“To the Poem,” published in Adventures in Poetry, January 1970

“To Edwin Denby,” published in Adventures in Poetry, January 1970

“Untitled,” published in Adventures in Poetry, January 1970

“A Quiet Poem,” published in Adventures in Poetry, January 1970

“Untitled,” published in Bombay Gin, October 1977

“Frank O’Hara Dead at 40” by Ted Berrigan, published in The East Village Other, August 1966

“Four Apartments: A Memoir of Frank O’Hara” by Joseph LeSueur, published in The World, March 1969

 

“Frank O’Hara (1968)” by Joe Brainard, published in Panjandrum, January 1973

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