Poem Board

John Ashbery: A Blessing in Disguise (poem I memorized for class)

Frank O'Hara: Adieu to Norman, Bonjour to Joan and Jean Paul

Ted Berrigan: Excerpts from Memorial Day

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When I was a kid
because I read a lot of books
I thought I should think that
there was no such thing as happiness

Then later I suspected that
happiness was not impossible
only impossible to notice
until after it was gone

But when I had none of it
I thought if it ever returned
I would know what happiness was
and enjoy it for a while

And soon enough it did return
long enough for me to know
and left just as soon as I knew
it didn’t want me to.

The Name


Be natural,
wise
as you can be,
my daughter,

let my name
be in you flesh
I gave you
in the act of

loving your mother,
all your days
her ways,
the woman in you

brought from
sensuality's measure,
no other,
there was no thought

of it but such
pleasure all women
must be in her,
as you. But not wiser,

not more of nature
than her hair,
the eyes
she gives you.

There will not be another
woman such as you
are. Remember
your mother,

the way you came,
the days of waiting.
Be natural,
daughter, wise

as you can be,
all my daughters,
be women
for men

when that time comes.
Let the rhetoric
stay with me
your father. Let

me talk about it,
saving you such
vicious self-
exposure, let you

pass it on
in you. I cannot
be more than the man
who watches.


-RC from FOR LOVE (1962)

!!!Listen here at UBUWEB