My Heart Poem by Frank O'Hara

My Heart

Rating: 2.9


I'm not going to cry all the time
nor shall I laugh all the time,
I don't prefer one "strain" to another.
I'd have the immediacy of a bad movie,
not just a sleeper, but also the big,
overproduced first-run kind. I want to be
at least as alive as the vulgar. And if
some aficionado of my mess says "That's
not like Frank!", all to the good! I
don't wear brown and grey suits all the time,
do I? No. I wear workshirts to the opera,
often. I want my feet to be bare,
I want my face to be shaven, and my heart--
you can't plan on the heart, but
the better part of it, my poetry, is open.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Rob Lamberton 06 February 2023

"you can't plan on the heart, but the better part of it, my poetry, is open."

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Rafael 29 November 2018

This is the first poem that I encountered when I was younger. Southern California Metro had placed poems throughout various bus lines, and I was completely affected by it. There's such a beauty in it's simplicity that I find incredibly moving.

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Veeraiyah Subbulakshmi 29 March 2012

the last part of this poem is something strange and strong...Frank O' Hara. Had you passed your time thinking of verses after verse to make a poem...Good...

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Frank O'Hara

Frank O'Hara

Baltimore, Maryland
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