Having a Coke with You

Frank O'Hara

(1926-1966)

This is a love poem and, as A. O. Scott of the New York Times critic put it, "it is like the best first date ever." The intensity of the feelings and the rush of the images contrasts with the deceptively mundane title - "Having a Coke with You." So it is with love, especially young love, when even the simplest of things glow.

Having a Coke with You

is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz,     

Bayonne or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona

partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian

partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt

partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches

partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary

it is hard to believe when I’m with you that there can be anything as still

as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it

in the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and forth

between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles

and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint

you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them

I look

at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world

except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick

which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together the first time

and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism

just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or

at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me

and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them

when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank

or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully as the horse

it seems they were all cheated of some marvelous experience

which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I am telling you about it

Have a listen to the poem being recited.

There is much to think about in this poem and that process is enhanced if you can access A. O. Scott's comments in the New York Times - part of the Close Read section. In it he offers a guided tour of the poem pointing out many of the fine touches that could escape a casual read. There is a lot to appreciate and I would have missed a lot of it had I not been steered to A. O. Scott by my wife Geralyn. In case you have a subscription, here's the link to the Close Read.

If you cannot get to the Close Read of the poem, here are two aspects of the poem to consider.

• The poem stretches from the title to the last word as one unpunctuated sentence. Why do you think the poet made that choice? Did it affect your experience of the poem? The pace of your reading?

• The identity of the two parties is blurred, including their gender. The use of the pronoun "you" allows this.

Here's a link to a in-depth analysis of the poem - https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/frank-o-hara/having-a-coke-with-you.

Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara (March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American writer, poet, and art critic. A curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O'Hara became prominent in New York City's art world. O'Hara is regarded as a leading figure in the New York School, an informal group of artists, writers, and musicians who drew inspiration from jazz, surrealism, abstract expressionism, action painting, and contemporary avant-garde art movements.