tanialidov, who has a writing blog called No Snow in Hollywood, commented about this post featuring Mary-Louise Parker reading some prose by the 2007 Poet Laureate Charles Simic. In her comments, tanialidov mentioned poet Frank O’Hara:
Also, relating to poetry and movies, have you ever read any Frank O’Hara? He is my favorite poet, and quite possibly my favorite writer period. He wrote about the movies constantly. The name of my blog is taken from one of his poems.
Here is one such poem from O’Hara:
Ave Maria
Mothers of Americalet your kids go to the movies!get them out of the house so they won’t know what you’re up toit’s true that fresh air is good for the bodybut what about the soulthat grows in darkness, embossed by silvery imagesand when you grow old as grow old you mustthey won’t hate youthey won’t criticize you they won’t knowthey’ll be in some glamorous countrythey first saw on a Saturday afternoon or playing hookey
they may even be grateful to youfor their first sexual experiencewhich only cost you a quarterand didn’t upset the peaceful homethey will know where candy bars come fromand gratuitous bags of popcornas gratuitous as leaving the movie before it’s overwith a pleasant stranger whose apartment is in the Heaven on Earth Bldgnear the Williamsburg Bridgeoh mothers you will have made the little tykesso happy because if nobody does pick them up in the moviesthey won’t know the differenceand if somebody does it’ll be sheer gravyand they’ll have been truly entertained either wayinstead of hanging around the yardor up in their roomhating youprematurely since you won’t have done anything horribly mean yetexcept keeping them from the darker joysit’s unforgivable the latterso don’t blame me if you won’t take this adviceand the family breaks upand your children grow old and blind in front of a TV setseeingmovies you wouldn’t let them see when they were young
Blogger screwed up the margins. For a ‘real’ version of the poem, go here.
Great stuff. And a big H/T to you tanialidov! Thanks!
The WGA in Hollywood is having a weekly series of talks. Last week, Melissa Rosenberg said that she reads sonnets before she starts writing her script- she uses it to get into the mindset of using a restrictive format, while still saying everything that needs to be said.
Thanks for the shout-out!
I know, I hate how blogger makes it impossible to do irregular margins. It's crazy how much of a difference that can make in your experience of reading a poem.