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Digressions on Some Poems by Frank O'Hara: A Memoir
An unprecedented eyewitness account of the New York School, as seen between the lines of O'Hara's poetry
Joe LeSueur lived with Frank O'Hara from 1955 until 1965, the years when O'Hara wrote his greatest poems, including 'To the Film Industry in Crisis', 'In Memory of My Feelings', 'Having a Coke with You', and the famous Lunch Poems-so called because O'Hara wrote them during his lunch break at the Museum of Modern Art, where he worked as a curator. (The artists he championed include Jackson Pollock, Joseph Cornell, Grace Hartigan, Jane Freilicher, Joan Mitchell, and Robert Rauschenberg.) The flowering of O'Hara's talent, cut short by a fatal car accident in 1966, produced some of the most exuberant, truly celebratory lyrics of the twentieth century. And it produced America's greatest poet of city life since Whitman.
Alternating between O'Hara's poems and LeSueur's memory of the circumstances that inspired them, Digressions on Some Poems by Frank O'Hara is a literary commentary like no other--an affectionate, no-holds-barred memoir of O'Hara and the New York that animated his friends, lovers, movies, paintings, streets, apartments, music, parties, and pickups. This volume, which includes many of O'Hara's best-loved poems, is the most intimate, true-to-life portrait we will ever have of this quintessential American figure and his now legendary times.
Joe LeSueur lived with Frank O'Hara from 1955 until 1965, the years when O'Hara wrote his greatest poems, including 'To the Film Industry in Crisis', 'In Memory of My Feelings', 'Having a Coke with You', and the famous Lunch Poems-so called because O'Hara wrote them during his lunch break at the Museum of Modern Art, where he worked as a curator. (The artists he championed include Jackson Pollock, Joseph Cornell, Grace Hartigan, Jane Freilicher, Joan Mitchell, and Robert Rauschenberg.) The flowering of O'Hara's talent, cut short by a fatal car accident in 1966, produced some of the most exuberant, truly celebratory lyrics of the twentieth century. And it produced America's greatest poet of city life since Whitman.
Alternating between O'Hara's poems and LeSueur's memory of the circumstances that inspired them, Digressions on Some Poems by Frank O'Hara is a literary commentary like no other--an affectionate, no-holds-barred memoir of O'Hara and the New York that animated his friends, lovers, movies, paintings, streets, apartments, music, parties, and pickups. This volume, which includes many of O'Hara's best-loved poems, is the most intimate, true-to-life portrait we will ever have of this quintessential American figure and his now legendary times.
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 27, 2023
4/5–This is the memoir equivalent of a data dump, with all that term’s attendant delights (of which there are many) and inevitable frustrations. The torrent of details are paired with a conversational, intimate tone. Joe LeSueur is your self-aware guide. Dishy, catty, and warmly caring—a mix that entertains as well as endears. He has your elbow at a party, a convivial din behind you, sometimes taking a high-minded approach, other times getting down in the dirt. Never above slinging the “sordid and raunchy,” though he tends to demure when it comes to the juiciest tidbits. Perfectly fine with “a digression on a digression on a digression,” if you’re patient and willing.
Sometimes, LeSueur loses sight of Frank O’Hara and his writing, offering little insight (he has an annoying deference for academics, which stops him from analyzing many of the poems’ literary merits, and one instruction to “Read the poem; make of it what you will” is particularly grating), but other times, he breaks a poem wide open, investigating how it ticks, as he does with a poem like “At the Old Place.”
What keeps you reading is, first and foremost, O’Hara, a “forthright, informally inclined poet” who is the generous and passionate ying to LeSueur’s “wild and unrepentant” yang. O’Hara is filled with a zest for life and no investment in his own fame. And one can’t help but admire his indomitable spirit. But you also keep reading because of LeSueur’s treatment of the everyday regularity of desire—coupling, cruising, coming onto oblivious or encouraging ‘straight’ men—drawing the 50s and 60s closer to us rather than pushing it into that rarefied space of repression that heteronormative historical assessments make it seem.
O’Hara and LeSueur drifted apart before the poet’s untimely death, a dissolution that the author foreshadows in foreboding repetitions and never gets around to satisfyingly fleshing out (probably due to the unfinished state of the memoir). Nevertheless, their sparkling, combative, beautiful friendship is what remains. Two searching, unconventional souls setting sail in the same leaky but life-saving boat.
Sometimes, LeSueur loses sight of Frank O’Hara and his writing, offering little insight (he has an annoying deference for academics, which stops him from analyzing many of the poems’ literary merits, and one instruction to “Read the poem; make of it what you will” is particularly grating), but other times, he breaks a poem wide open, investigating how it ticks, as he does with a poem like “At the Old Place.”
What keeps you reading is, first and foremost, O’Hara, a “forthright, informally inclined poet” who is the generous and passionate ying to LeSueur’s “wild and unrepentant” yang. O’Hara is filled with a zest for life and no investment in his own fame. And one can’t help but admire his indomitable spirit. But you also keep reading because of LeSueur’s treatment of the everyday regularity of desire—coupling, cruising, coming onto oblivious or encouraging ‘straight’ men—drawing the 50s and 60s closer to us rather than pushing it into that rarefied space of repression that heteronormative historical assessments make it seem.
O’Hara and LeSueur drifted apart before the poet’s untimely death, a dissolution that the author foreshadows in foreboding repetitions and never gets around to satisfyingly fleshing out (probably due to the unfinished state of the memoir). Nevertheless, their sparkling, combative, beautiful friendship is what remains. Two searching, unconventional souls setting sail in the same leaky but life-saving boat.
January 10, 2013
A very fascinating document regarding the poet Frank O'Hara. I try to read books regarding the New York School of Poetry - but they are hard to come by. It was a fascinating subculture type of world. Lots of martini's, paintings, painters, and other poets. O'Hara was the king in his circle and rightfully so. Wonderful poet.
November 29, 2020
In LeSueur's argument, Frank O'Hara's poems run in three phases of his professional career, as those phases track his erotic attachments: 1.) the phase that runs from his beginning in poem-writing, at Harvard, through his early period working in NYC and at MOMA, and corresponding to his friendship with the author, Joe LeSueur. Lovers only occasionally, best friends and roommates, seemingly enduringly -- but, for LeSueur, with a twist; 2.) the rather brief period of perhaps no more than two years (1959-1961) of O'Hara's affair with a dancer, Vincent Warren, during which, most of the poems in Love Poems (Tentative Title) were originally written; 3.) and finally, the period, from 1960, and increasingly after the affair with Warren ended, until O'Hara's death in July 1966, when Bill Berkson became part of O'Hara's life, and roughly, O'Hara's muse.
A complicated argument for a complicated book. Let's note -- because they don't teach you this in school -- you're told about "Personism," which is wonderful, and was written in the doldrums of transition from phase 2.) to phase 3.); and you're told about Lunch Poems, that O'Hara had some difficulty bringing to Ferlinghetti and culminates the first phase of the work -- that there's a whole book, that doesn't appear until 1971's The Collected Poems, of experiments done in collaboration with Bill Berkson, about Berkson, crazily erotic poetry, high on Berkson. Without such experiments, we don't get "Poem (Lana Turner has collapsed!)" -- a poem dictated to O'Hara, seemingly, and for those -- like me -- who love this work, immortal.
But Joe LeSueur. Ahem. For ten years he lived with O'Hara and this book was left at his death. Far from negligible, the book is a document, full of gossip, lore, and judgments of the community that surrounded O'Hara and LeSueur, the painters, poets and critics among whom O'Hara was an extraordinary presence. Beginning as lovers, O'Hara and LeSueur grew toward friendship, and professionally, O'Hara grew away from LeSueur even as their friendship matured. LeSueur writes as a memoirist -- as someone who knows that without his, an important account won't emerge. He writes as an emendator -- a scholar who would correct mis-attributions in a reading of O'Hara that labored to identify the persons behind Christian names as well as the nights, the locales in question. Rather than interpret, he uses the details in the poems to suggest its resonances in his memories of O'Hara and their circle. This doesn't make for a straightforward chronology, nor is the editorial apparatus on the book at all apparent. That said, there are moving anecdotes. And it's made apparent how crucial certain women -- Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Patsy Southgate -- were to O'Hara's development. In general, LeSueur is kindly evasive when it comes to Gooch's biography. This is a better book than Gooch's biography. Neither is it the literary triumph that it may have set out to be.
A complicated argument for a complicated book. Let's note -- because they don't teach you this in school -- you're told about "Personism," which is wonderful, and was written in the doldrums of transition from phase 2.) to phase 3.); and you're told about Lunch Poems, that O'Hara had some difficulty bringing to Ferlinghetti and culminates the first phase of the work -- that there's a whole book, that doesn't appear until 1971's The Collected Poems, of experiments done in collaboration with Bill Berkson, about Berkson, crazily erotic poetry, high on Berkson. Without such experiments, we don't get "Poem (Lana Turner has collapsed!)" -- a poem dictated to O'Hara, seemingly, and for those -- like me -- who love this work, immortal.
But Joe LeSueur. Ahem. For ten years he lived with O'Hara and this book was left at his death. Far from negligible, the book is a document, full of gossip, lore, and judgments of the community that surrounded O'Hara and LeSueur, the painters, poets and critics among whom O'Hara was an extraordinary presence. Beginning as lovers, O'Hara and LeSueur grew toward friendship, and professionally, O'Hara grew away from LeSueur even as their friendship matured. LeSueur writes as a memoirist -- as someone who knows that without his, an important account won't emerge. He writes as an emendator -- a scholar who would correct mis-attributions in a reading of O'Hara that labored to identify the persons behind Christian names as well as the nights, the locales in question. Rather than interpret, he uses the details in the poems to suggest its resonances in his memories of O'Hara and their circle. This doesn't make for a straightforward chronology, nor is the editorial apparatus on the book at all apparent. That said, there are moving anecdotes. And it's made apparent how crucial certain women -- Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Patsy Southgate -- were to O'Hara's development. In general, LeSueur is kindly evasive when it comes to Gooch's biography. This is a better book than Gooch's biography. Neither is it the literary triumph that it may have set out to be.
October 29, 2007
An intimate meditation on O'Hara's poems written by his former roommate (and occasional lover). Sometimes catty, sometimes moving, always deeply personal, this is a lovely find.
December 5, 2009
Joe LeSueur's memoir of his friend and companion, is a truly illuminating portrait of the artist. What makes these digressions so rich and rewarding for the reader, is the unique perspective LeSueur is able to bring to this material. These are LeSueur's memories of experiences and events shared with O'Hara and their myriad of friends and acquaintances. I found this book to be compelling, intimate and inspiring (indeed, "Lunch Poems" and "Selected Poems" were never too far out of reach, and both read from cover to cover). By virtue of having been a participant or, at the very least having been an eye witness to the events depicted, LeSueur has captured not just a time and place, but the essence of a cherished friend. I found myself reading slowly, savoring each passage. By the end of the book I felt I had really gotten to know O'Hara and his circle of friends, and found myself in tears as I read the last few pages. LeSueur's memoir is a tribute to Frank O'Hara as both an artist and a beloved friend.
September 25, 2018
I just couldn't get past the voice. I don't mind digressions; I would *love* to follow oh, I don't know, Chloris Leachman around her apartment (house?) all day listening to her tell tales about anything and everything. It's just too much coattail-riding for my taste, with not enough substance. I gave up.
February 22, 2008
I find myself bringing this book up in conversation all the time! A tender and loving portrait, of not only a set of a poet I love and his friends, but a version of New York City where everything was possible.
May 25, 2025
A gossipy memoir of a fantastic scene and a wondeful poet, and it succeeds in large part because of LeSueur and O'Hara's personalities, as well as the variety lent to that dynamic by O'Hara's capricious qualities and the large coterie surrounding the two. Its charm grew a little thinner after a while (especially as O'Hara and LeSueur's friendship grows more strained), but throughout insightful and enjoyable. Interesting how similar this was in its digressive, indiscreet method to Boone's Century of Clouds although, given Boone wrote his PhD on O'Hara, not shocking.
September 1, 2022
A thoroughly enjoyable gossipy biography of the poet Frank O'Hara by his long time partner. It is structured around O'Hara's poems, with an in-depth discussion of the events that inform each poem. This book is interesting for several reasons; it is a serious discussion of O'Hara's poetry, it is also a time capsule of 1950's early 1960's New York City's art scene through an unvarnished street-level lens, and finally it's about the poet himself and his complex relationship with the author.
April 18, 2025
weird because i was SLOGGING my way through this one near the end -- it's just more of the same, more references i don't understand, more people and places and name-drops to lose track of -- but i got exactly what i asked for. and more. it's just so cute. there is so much love here and it's hard to be angry at that.
December 2, 2024
“He falls; but even in falling he is higher than those who fall into the ordinary sun.”
I’m guilty of devouring Frank O’Hara’s work without giving each poem enough thought. It’s just, the words come together so masterfully I’m practically tripping over myself to finish reading.
Digressions delivered on its premise — to dissect and illuminate the life events that influenced O’Hara’s work. And from an insider like LeSueur, who struck a fine balance between informative and dishy! We should feel so lucky.
O’Hara was a magnetic figure, I’ll always read about him.
I’m guilty of devouring Frank O’Hara’s work without giving each poem enough thought. It’s just, the words come together so masterfully I’m practically tripping over myself to finish reading.
Digressions delivered on its premise — to dissect and illuminate the life events that influenced O’Hara’s work. And from an insider like LeSueur, who struck a fine balance between informative and dishy! We should feel so lucky.
O’Hara was a magnetic figure, I’ll always read about him.
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April 22, 2025I loved this. I think it was very sentimental but bitchy and just wonderful.
November 2, 2011
Memoirs like these can sometimes seem a little pitiful, like a desperate grab at a great writer's estate (I think one of Keroac's wives published one recently that really exemplified this). But though Joe LeSueuer's achievements pale in comparison to his subject's, he's aware enough to pass this off with honesty and humor, making the memoir not pitiful at all, but warm and personal. His very intimate, very--as the title implies--digressive style works perfectly to illuminate the social milieu surrounding Frank O'Hara's poems, a milieu which formed the substance of so many of those poems. There are lovers, friends, employers, parties, fights, tifts, witticisms, rivalries, insults--everything, that is, in here. He also gives great insight into Frank's writing methods, or lack thereof (for instance, he recalls Frank getting up once in the middle of conversation, going over to his typewriter for five minutes, and coming back with a poem). LeSueuer is very honest about his separation with Frank too, right before Frank's death, which gives it a sad and poignant end. Although Frank's death cut short so much great art, it's truly wonderful to have one of his intimates preserve the spirit of that era in memoir.
August 9, 2012
A fascinating glimpse into a time and place about which I knew next to nothing, and a compelling window into O'Hara's poetry. (I'm excited to go back and read his work again. There's a pretty wide gulf between the stuff I love and the stuff I can't stand, and I wonder how having a better grasp of his story might affect my reading of his poetry.) I'm generally all for digressions, but I wish this book had been just a bit tighter. I liked the approach, though, and the beginning of the book was especially captivating.
June 21, 2009
this book made me fall in love with frank all over again. or for the first time. sort of. i mean, him. not just his poems. and his poems. and fabulous nyc in the 50s. and if you ever wanted to know what it was like to be gay and to be an artist or to be gay and in nyc or to be an artist in nyc or any combo of the above (mid-century of course), this is the book for you.
March 11, 2016
This book gets 5 stars from me because I love Frank O'Hara's poetry, and so this personal peek inside some of the poems seems to call for the maximum appreciation possible. Highly recommended for O'Hara fans, and for those interested in queer history: Lots of great homo-art gossip/history here!
April 28, 2015
In the style of O'Hara himself. A wonderful and loving feat of recollection.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews