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Having a Coke with You
Unknown Binding
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About the author
Frank O'Hara
122 books703 followersCollections of American poet Francis Russell O'Hara include
Meditations in an Emergency
(1957) and
Lunch Poems
(1964); playfulness, irony, sophistication, and a shared interest in the visual arts mark works of the New York School, an active group that included O'Hara during the 1950s and 1960s.
Parents reared O'Hara in Grafton, Massachusetts. O'Hara served in the south Pacific and Japan as a sonar man on the destroyer United States Ship Nicholas during World War II.
With the funding, made available to veterans, he attended Harvard University and roomed with artist-writer Edward Gorey. He majored in music and composed some works despite his irregular attendance was and his disparate interests. Visual art and contemporary music, his first love, heavily influenced O'Hara, a fine piano player all his life; he suddenly played swathes of Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff when visiting new partners, often to their shock.
At Harvard, O'Hara met John Ashbery and began publishing poems in the Harvard Advocate. Despite his love for music, O'Hara changed his major and graduated from Harvard in 1950 with a degree in English.
He then attended graduate school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. At Michigan, he won a Hopwood award and received his Master of Arts in English literature 1951. In that autumn, O'Hara moved into an apartment in city of New York with Joe LeSueur, his roommate and sometimes his lover for the next 11 years. Known throughout his life for his extreme sociability, passion, and warmth, O'Hara had hundreds of friends and lovers throughout his life, many from the New York art and poetry worlds. Soon after he arrived in New York, the Museum of Modern Art employed him at the front desk, and he began to write seriously.
O'Hara, active in the art world, working as a reviewer for Art News, and in 1960 was made Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture Exhibitions for the Museum of Modern Art. He was also friends with artists like Willem de Kooning, Norman Bluhm, Larry Rivers, and Joan Mitchell. O'Hara died in an accident on Fire Island in which he was struck and seriously injured by a man speeding in a beach vehicle during the early morning hours of July 24, 1966. He died the next day of a ruptured liver at the age of 40 and was buried in the Green River Cemetery on Long Island.
Parents reared O'Hara in Grafton, Massachusetts. O'Hara served in the south Pacific and Japan as a sonar man on the destroyer United States Ship Nicholas during World War II.
With the funding, made available to veterans, he attended Harvard University and roomed with artist-writer Edward Gorey. He majored in music and composed some works despite his irregular attendance was and his disparate interests. Visual art and contemporary music, his first love, heavily influenced O'Hara, a fine piano player all his life; he suddenly played swathes of Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff when visiting new partners, often to their shock.
At Harvard, O'Hara met John Ashbery and began publishing poems in the Harvard Advocate. Despite his love for music, O'Hara changed his major and graduated from Harvard in 1950 with a degree in English.
He then attended graduate school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. At Michigan, he won a Hopwood award and received his Master of Arts in English literature 1951. In that autumn, O'Hara moved into an apartment in city of New York with Joe LeSueur, his roommate and sometimes his lover for the next 11 years. Known throughout his life for his extreme sociability, passion, and warmth, O'Hara had hundreds of friends and lovers throughout his life, many from the New York art and poetry worlds. Soon after he arrived in New York, the Museum of Modern Art employed him at the front desk, and he began to write seriously.
O'Hara, active in the art world, working as a reviewer for Art News, and in 1960 was made Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture Exhibitions for the Museum of Modern Art. He was also friends with artists like Willem de Kooning, Norman Bluhm, Larry Rivers, and Joan Mitchell. O'Hara died in an accident on Fire Island in which he was struck and seriously injured by a man speeding in a beach vehicle during the early morning hours of July 24, 1966. He died the next day of a ruptured liver at the age of 40 and was buried in the Green River Cemetery on Long Island.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
July 20, 2017
This is probably my all time favorite poem. It sends out the best vibes. It is beautiful, it is funny and overwhelming.
It addresses to all of us, to everyone who is in love, not only with a person, but with our daily life, with summer, with places.
While reading it, you see everything right before your eyes.
I know this poem by heart. I read it at least once a year, yet it never fails to shook me.
I love the fact that the title isn't repeated in the poem, you just dive into it. I love the ordinary life images, starting from the title itself, Coke, who doesn't love coke? who doesn't know it? I love the speed of the poem, the way you'e catapulted in its atmosphere. The author has something to tell you, so buckle up cause you're going on a journey.
It addresses to all of us, to everyone who is in love, not only with a person, but with our daily life, with summer, with places.
While reading it, you see everything right before your eyes.
I know this poem by heart. I read it at least once a year, yet it never fails to shook me.
I love the fact that the title isn't repeated in the poem, you just dive into it. I love the ordinary life images, starting from the title itself, Coke, who doesn't love coke? who doesn't know it? I love the speed of the poem, the way you'e catapulted in its atmosphere. The author has something to tell you, so buckle up cause you're going on a journey.
February 28, 2021
I read this poem due to Frank O’Hara’s poetry being mentioned in ‘Normal People’ as a gift that Connell gives Marianne. I just wanted a little glimpse at the poetry Connell deemed worthy to give as a present to the one person he cared about the most. I thought it was interesting how they share many moments like those that are depicted in this poem: the concept that the most simple moment can be the most special if it is the first for the two people sharing it.
January 29, 2021
I love this poem more than the reader loves yoghurt.
July 20, 2017
Having a Coke with You is a modern poem impossible not to fall in love with. It manages to perfectly balance the romantic lines with ordinarily funny images that always bend back to the passion of a lover.
I find peculiar how such a metaphorically specific and dynamic (it has a quite unorthodox rhythm) poem earned such popularity and positive response from the audience, yet I challenge you to read it and not agree with how intriguing and mystifying it is.
I find peculiar how such a metaphorically specific and dynamic (it has a quite unorthodox rhythm) poem earned such popularity and positive response from the audience, yet I challenge you to read it and not agree with how intriguing and mystifying it is.
April 16, 2021
everything is making me too emotional at the moment......
December 28, 2022
this is so perfect. this poem makes me blush and happy.
November 20, 2022
he is so dear to me
November 24, 2023
i look at you and i would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world
May 31, 2021
Probably my favourite poem ever.
It makes me feel as if I am right there in the moment with him, experiencing the same emotions described in his verses. It makes me think of the ones I've loved, and the one I now love.
It makes me feel as if I am right there in the moment with him, experiencing the same emotions described in his verses. It makes me think of the ones I've loved, and the one I now love.
September 16, 2018
My favorite love poem of all. Simple expression of one persons love for another. No talk of forever, not very romantic: it is simply life written down. Fleet, breathtaking, incredible. O'Hara.
February 21, 2024
« 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 for the
first time»
poetry is such an unknown genre for me, yet i find myself craving it often.
such a short, simple and romantic poem that captures the beauty of living, of the ordinary and letting our loved ones know how adored they are.
i'm glad this poem exist cause this verse has all the words i've been looking to spill out of my mouth everytime i look at her.
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 for the
first time»
poetry is such an unknown genre for me, yet i find myself craving it often.
such a short, simple and romantic poem that captures the beauty of living, of the ordinary and letting our loved ones know how adored they are.
i'm glad this poem exist cause this verse has all the words i've been looking to spill out of my mouth everytime i look at her.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 20, 2025
“ 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”
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”
May 26, 2025
i remember hearing this poem for the first time when i was in 7th grade, i didn’t understand it, the unfamiliar names of places, the metaphors that floated just beyond my reach but i felt how much love and tenderness was woven into each line that i instantly fell in love with it.
years have passed, and with each one, i seem to understand it a little more. i moved to a new country on my own, standing at the threshold of something vast. and still, sharing a coke with someone i love outshines the most breathtaking sunsets i've seen in solitude. life is beautiful and i love loving and i love love.
years have passed, and with each one, i seem to understand it a little more. i moved to a new country on my own, standing at the threshold of something vast. and still, sharing a coke with someone i love outshines the most breathtaking sunsets i've seen in solitude. life is beautiful and i love loving and i love love.
July 6, 2024
FULL REVIEW ON MY WEBSITE
https://thebookcornerchronicles.com/2...
Yet again we are talking about a poem which really didn’t work for me.
The plot was interesting but the way it was written didn’t work for me and I just couldn’t connect with me.
The writing style here wasn’t the best and its probably the thing which annoyed me the most with this poem.
https://thebookcornerchronicles.com/2...
Yet again we are talking about a poem which really didn’t work for me.
The plot was interesting but the way it was written didn’t work for me and I just couldn’t connect with me.
The writing style here wasn’t the best and its probably the thing which annoyed me the most with this poem.
June 21, 2018
My all time favorite poem.
April 2, 2020
can I have a love like this 🥰🥰
(I’m in a poetry craze rn)
(I’m in a poetry craze rn)
October 26, 2020
This is so beautiful!
March 15, 2021
Gorgeous romantic American poetry for summer lovers
May 31, 2021
One of the best love poems ever!
September 11, 2021
my heart!
October 3, 2021
love this poem read it and thought of herb 💜
October 21, 2021
I'm here because of Normal People and this poem is exactly that vibe so I am more than happy
November 21, 2021
I LITERALLY LOVE HIS WORKS AND THIS IS THE POEM THAT TAUGHT ME HE WAS A GAY MAN WHAT THE FUCK I LOVE HIM SO MUCH
February 9, 2022
The way I'm giggling and feel bubbly every time I read this poem is comforting.
February 20, 2022
I’m floored
February 20, 2022
Love is magical, always.
February 22, 2023
this poem will always have a special place in my heart
June 27, 2023
Es un poema hermoso, lleno de vida y diversión. Necesito leer más de Frank definitivamente.
January 16, 2024
I reread this poem approximately twice a month and absolutely adore it. It showcases the innocence and normalcy of love. Just beautiful!
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February 12, 2024cheers to the gallery firsts
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews