I don't ... like rhythm, assonance, all that stuff. You just go on your nerve. If someone's chasing you down the street with a knife you just run, you don't turn around and shout, 'Give it up! I was a track star for Mineola Prep.'
Frank O'HaraRead
I love you. I love you, but I’m turning to my verses and my heart is closing like a fist.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote expresses a conflict between love and the need for self-protection through creative expression.
In this quote, Frank O'Hara conveys the complex emotions that come with love. While he openly expresses his affection, he simultaneously acknowledges a need to retreat into his poetry, suggesting that vulnerability can lead to emotional closure as a means of self-preservation. The imagery of his heart closing like a fist signifies a struggle between the intimacy of love and the defense mechanisms we develop to cope with emotional turmoil.
Themes
LovePoetryEmotionsVulnerabilitySelf-Protection
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a poetry reading to highlight the emotional depth of love.
More from Frank O'Hara
All quotes →I wouldn’t want to be faster or greener than now if you were with me O you were the best of all my days!
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My heart is in my/ pocket. It is poems by Pierre Reverdy.
Frank O'HaraRead
I don't believe in god, so I don't have to make elaborately sounded structures. ... Pain always produces logic, which is very bad for you. ... As for measure and other technical apparatus, that's just common sense: if you're going to buy a pair of pants you want them to be tight enough so everyone will want to go to bed with you. There's nothing metaphysical about it.
Frank O'HaraRead
I can't even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there's a subway handy, or a record store or some other sign that people do not totally regret life. It's more important to confirm the least sincere. The clouds get enough attention as it is.
Frank O'HaraRead
After the first glass of vodka you can accept just about anything of life even your own mysteriousness you think it is nice that a box of matches is purple and brown and is called La Petite and comes from Sweden for they are words that you know and that is all you know words not their feelings or what they mean and you write because you know them not because you understand them because you don't you are stupid and lazy and will never be great but you do what you know because what else is there?
Frank O'HaraRead
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