Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Remembering poet Frank O'Hara's joyful spirit on East 9th Street



Tonight at 6, the Greenwich Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP), Two Boots and the Poetry Project will host a celebration of poet Frank O'Hara with a plaque unveiling outside 441 E. Ninth St.

O'Hara lived at this address just west of Tompkins Square Park for four years with his on-and-off-again lover Joe LeSueur.

From the GVSHP blog Off the Grid:

From his window on East Ninth Street he could see the Church of St. Brigid (which he called St. Bridget’s) across Tompkins Square Park on Avenue B at East Eighth Street, and mentioned it in several poems. Here’s part of “Early on Sunday,” 1961:

…how sad the lower East Side is on Sunday morning in May
eating yellow eggs
eating St. Bridget’s benediction
washing the world down with rye and Coca-Cola and the news
Joe stumbles home
pots and pans crash to the floor
everyone’s happy again

O'Hara died in a car accident on Fire Island in 1966. He was 40.

Read more about O'Hara and tonight's dedication at Off the Grid here.

Also, tomorrow night, the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery will host a reading of O'Hara's 50th anniversary edition of "Lunch Poems." Find the details here.

4 comments:

8:22 a.m. said...

how sad the lower East Side is on Sunday mornings
eating Planet doughnuts
eating froyos
walking the shame
washing the world down with Mimosa and Bloody Mary and the brunch
bro and broho stumble home
flip-flops and stiletto heels crash to the floor
everyone’s woooohoing again

Anonymous said...

Bravo. Nicely done. A beautiful tribute for a beautiful mind.

Anonymous said...

Oh, 8:22...perfect.

Anonymous said...

In the meantime, didn't a landlord take the plaque off the Ginsberg building?

When are we going to gt a Ted Berrigan plaque?

101 St. Mark’s Place, apt. 12A, NYC 10009

New York. Friends appeared & disappeared, or wigged out,

Or stayed; inspiring strangers sadly died; everyone

I ever knew aged tremendously, except me. I remained

Somewhere between 2 and 9 years old.