PERSONISM: A MANIFESTO- Frank O'hara

I love poetry. I write quite a bit of my own, and for me, this article by Frank O'Hara touches on some of those beliefs, ideas and feelings that I have about poetry.

A poem is personism. It is meant for the person in whom it is being written for or about. It is the most inner emotions of the writer and how they feel about that person. It is, in my opinion, only one of the greatest forms of art. For me, without poetry, I would not survive. It is something that I must have. It is a way to express everything that I am feeling, as it is with everyone I know who writes poetry.

And I must say that I agree with O’Hara when he says that poetry’s “…aspects is to address itself to one person (other than the poet himself), thus evoking overtones of love without destroying love’s life—giving vulgarity, and sustaining the poet’s feelings towards the poem while preventing love from distracting him into feeling about the person.” Poetry is not meant for anyone other than the poet and the subject in which the poet is referring to.

O’Hara states that a minimal aspect is to evoke love without distracting oneself. I do not necessarily say that I agree with this. Yes, poetry can be about love, but that is not all that it needs to be about. There are many other topics that it can be about. Try writing about death, anger, a friend, it really does not matter, a poem can be written about anything. Yes, poetry does distract the writer about their feelings toward the person that they are writing about, but only sort of. It keeps the “relationship” between the writer and the subject on a level of infatuation or the idea of… whatever that idea may be.

A poem is not written to be interpreted by others. No one wants their poems to be interpreted by stupid high school students, the poems were not written for that purpose, they were written on a deep personal level with the intention of expressing feelings, whether or not the other party learns of those feelings or not. And sometimes it is just better to get the feelings out, not necessarily tell the other person about them.

But on the contrary, it is very fun to interpret a poem. It can be interpreted however the reader wishes to, regardless of whether they have the correct message that is behind the poem. And it is also fun to read poetry, whether or not the reader is interpreting the poem. It can be exhilarating to know that there are other people who share the same interests as you. And it’s nice to know that there so many poems out there.

So who are we to say what a poem means when we were not the person who wrote it. We do not have that right and we should recognize it, even if we feel the need to interpret someone else’s poem.