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3 unusual facts about Lunch Poems


Lunch Poems

“Personal Poem” begins, “Now when I walk around at lunchtime/I have only two charms in my pocket.” It is about O’Hara’s conversation with LeRoi Jones about Miles Davis, Lionel Trilling, Henry James, and Herman Melville.

“The Day Lady Died” begins, “It is 12:20 in New York a Friday/three days after Bastille day, yes/it is 1959 and I go get a shoeshine.” In the poem, he references Paul Verlaine, New World Writing, Brendan Behan, Jean Genet’s plays The Balcony and The Blacks and New York locations like the Golden Griffin and the Ziegfeld Theatre.

“A Step Away From Them” begins, “It’s my lunch hour, so I go/for a walk among the hum-colored/cabs.” He references Edwin Denby, Federico Fellini, the Armory Show, and Pierre Reverdy, and New York locations like Juliet’s Corner and the Manhattan Storage Warehouse.



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