The New York School of Poetry

New York School of Poets

There was an artistic movement taking place in New York city in the 50s and 60s, along with painters, dancers, and musicians; a group of poets emerged.

John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara, Kenneth Koch, Ted Berrigan, Bernadette Mayer and more.

1950s and 1960s

New York City

The artistic scene was booming. It was an avant-garde era and the artists in NY supported each other’s work. It seemed like a the community was close knit; influence and inspiration came from each other. One of the major poets of the movement Frank O’Hara worked at the Museum of Modern Art. With close friendships to people like Jackson Pollock and Jasper Johns, O’Hara bridged the gap between poetry and visual art. Like the paintings of the time, the poems where abstract expressionism.

There is no set guidelines, except I guess being active in New York during the 50s and 60s

The movement was influenced by surrealism and modernism, but really uncovered a new style with urban sensibility. It was cosmopolitan reporting of the world around them in an abstract way.

One of the most prominent elements of a New York School poem is the observational style. It can be serious in subject, but it is often ironic and sometimes goofy. It’s style captures the quirks of life’s experience. Here are three examples of the style. The first two are written by Ted Berrigan and the final is by Frank O’Hara.

10 Things I Do Everyday

wake up

smoke pot

see the cat

love my wife

think of Frank

eat lunch

make noises

sing songs

go out

dig the streets

go home for dinner

read the Post

make pee-pee

two kids

grin

read books

see my friends

get pissed-off

have a Pepsi

disappear

In My Wheel

The pregnant waitress asks

'Would you like

some more coffee?'

Surprised out of the question

I wait seconds 'Yes,

I think I would!' I hand her

my empty cup, &

'thank you!' she says. My pleasure.

As Planned

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?

These poets were living out their lives in a shared group and location that was in an era of self-expression and awareness. They all used their own style and voice to talk about what was going on around them, the subject was whatever was significant to themselves and their community.