Poetry Friday — Frank O’Hara

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On the beach last week, one of my aunts gave me her Oprah magazine with a page turned down.
There are some great little essays by writers, about writing, she said.
And she wasn’t kidding.

How about this painful little gem by author Jim Shepard?
He tells students they may be cut out for the writing life if "(a) they need to do it in order to feel good about themselves, even though (b) doing it almost never makes them feel good about themselves."

Sigh.

I was thinking about this in the middle of the night last night.
I was up with an idea, which was great (in that I love a muse-driven writing session) and which was terrible (in that it was 1 a.m. and nothing but uck was actually coming out on the page).

So then I proceeded to use the time to catch up on some more back-blog-reading.
 And lo and behold, there you all are, sorting out your own stuff with writing and with life.

There is so much to negotiate, most of it in our own heads.
Thank goodness for poetry, right? 
Thank goodness for poetry and the hot, homemade Michigan-blueberry muffins I just pulled out of my oven.
Life’s pleasures.

This goes out to Tanita and Jama today.
With high hopes for confidence, joy, success and no regrets…

Autobiographia Literaria

When I was a child
I played by myself in a
corner of the schoolyard
all alone.

I hated dolls and I
hated games, animals were
not friendly and birds
flew away.

(Read the rest here, or better yet — listen to Garrison Keillor read it!)

26 Responses to “Poetry Friday — Frank O’Hara”

  1. Anonymous

    Welcome Back!

    And the wishes of “high hopes for confidence, joy, success and no regrets…” are sent right back atchya!

  3. jamarattigan

    Man, the Jim Shepard thing pretty much nails it! Learning to get out of one’s own way is a huge challenge for me.

    Thanks for the hopes and wishes and the “knowing.”

  4. Anonymous

    That’s a fabulous poem right there. It’s got lots of selfshine.

    And I see at that link that Alice McDermott celebrated a b’day this week. I’m reading her first novel now. LOVE HER BOOKS.

    Jules
    7-Imp

  6. Anonymous

    Tanita Says 🙂

    THANK YOU.
    This has been one HELL of a week in writing. I’m actually scaring myself, which should mean it’s going well? Right?

    I went to the O site and read the whole article. And whined a little. It is hard. But then, it’s good that it’s going hard. And it’s good to know that I’m in the right profession.

    xoxo
    NO regrets, babe.

    • liz_scanlon

      Re: Tanita Says 🙂

      Hard going is definately good.
      So is scaring yourself.
      I once sent a manuscript off to my editor because I feared that if I kept it any longer I might really flip my lid completely. So deep in la-la land was I…

      Hang in, sister…