Online Texts
for Craig White's Literature Courses

Frank O'Hara

 

My Heart

 


(1926-1966)

My Heart

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,                  4

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              8

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,                             12

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.

 

 

YouTube reading "My Heart"

http://www.frankohara.org/