Lunch Poems
Paul Farley explores how the poems written by New York poet Frank O'Hara on his lunch breaks at the Museum of Modern Art went on to form the core of his collection 'Lunch Poems'.
The poet Frank O'Hara was at the very centre of the explosion in New York's artistic life that took place in the nineteen-fifties and sixties.
Friend and champion of Abstract Expressionists such as Pollock and de Kooning, O'Hara worked at the Museum of Modern Art; during his lunch hours, he'd explore the city at its most vibrant peak before stopping off at the Olivetti typewriter store to write the poems that would eventually appear as the collection 'Lunch Poems'.
In this programme, Paul Farley heads to New York to see what it is about this collection- and the man that created it- that ensures its continuing popularity today. Along the way he meets some of the current crop of the city's poets, as well as O'Hara's long time friend and now elder statesman of verse, John Ashbery.
Producer: Geoff Bird
An All Out Production for 大象传媒 Radio 4.
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- Sun 21 Nov 2010 16:30大象传媒 Radio 4
- Sat 27 Nov 2010 23:30大象传媒 Radio 4 FM