Mathew Welton was thoughtful and entertainingly reflective last week at a research day at Bolton University. He was discussing the experience of writing an opera about Frank O Hara and the immersion required in order to retrieve the spirit and voice of the dead poet. I loved the talk and Matt’s new words for O Hara’s sardonic realities delivered with both acceptance and yearning…
I love this poem of O ‘Hara and have just ordered a huge chunky collected poems. Now that is more enduring than an Easter egg!!
And how radical the run on in this poem. Unsettling and makes me smile. A teasing bear hug of a poem! Definitely unfinished business!!
Morning
I’ve got to tell you how I love you always I think of it on grey mornings with death
in my mouth the tea is never hot enough then and the cigarette dry the maroon robe
chills me I need you and look out the window at the noiseless snow
At night on the dock the buses glow like clouds and I am lonely thinking of flutes
I miss you always when I go to the beach the sand is wet with tears that seem mine
although I never weep and hold you in my heart with a very real humor you’d be proud of
the parking lot is crowded and I stand rattling my keys the car is empty as a bicycle
what are you doing now where did you eat your lunch and were there lots of anchovies it
is difficult to think of you without me in the sentence you depress me when you are alone
Last night the stars were numerous and today snow is their calling card I’ll not be cordial
there is nothing that distracts me music is only a crossword puzzle do you know how it is
when you are the only passenger if there is a place further from me I beg you do not go
