Back to the Start

It seemed fitting for me to write my first post as an explanation of where I got the idea for the title of this blog. The line "Oh! kangaroos, sequins, chocolate sodas!" is from the poem “Today,” by one of my favorite poets, Frank O’Hara. Part of the New York School of poetry in the 1950s and 60s, O'Hara is known for his warm, lively personality and his eccentric habit of writing poems as they struck him, even if he was on a noisy street corner or in a room full of people. Many of O’Hara’s poems take place in Manhattan, where exist the “hum-colored/ cabs,” and he often wrote while on his lunch break as he wandered the streets of the city. His New York is a surreal one, a swirling scene of everyday objects like cans of Coca-Cola and Times Square chorus girls. Don’t mistake his casual tone for emptiness, however, because his dream-like state of being, “stuck in traffic in a taxi cab,” is the stuff of real life, and he shows us how to appreciate it. Because after all, “cheeseburgers,” “yellow helmets,” and “cats playing in sawdust” are not only a part of O’Hara’s surreal world, but ours as well, and they “do have meaning. They’re strong as rocks.”


Here's a link where you can find "Today," "A Step Away From Them," and more of O'Hara's lunch-time poetry: frankohara.org

Happy poetry reading!