Work of Art ?

one tick, two ticks
waiting for the end
but with the end
there is always another beginning
and i wait for that ending
hoping the next beginning is easier
then life will be easier
with no hard tasks
but the next begging is college
and that ending comes in four years.

I tried to create a poem that would mimic the repetition actually seen in the New York School Poems. The poems can be random but have issues that we all think about and deal with. I tried to incorporate how we all wait for something end, and with the end we feel relieved. When something ends something new will start and it seems like and endless cycle.

4. Work of Art

This is an abstract painting created by Willem DeKooning. He is an artist that is closely related to the New York School Poets. At fist glance the painting looks like it is utter chaos with colors and various images splattered all over the place. As look closer I see a repetition of colors, that form a room of some sort with various objects that I am uncertain of beginning to pop out. The one thing that stands out to me the most is the bubblegum pink, what I think is a chair. Besides the blues, greens and yellows it is the only pink used in the painting. Another thing that stands out is the skull on the floor, because it is the most clear and focused image in the painting. In the back of the room there seems to he a door only slightly opened and on the wall there is a ladder leading to a window. It looks like there are tacks in places that are supposed to be holding up things but I can’t distinguish objects from the paint that may be on the wall. It is puzzling me as to why there would be a ladder up to a window, when the door is open. Was it supposed to be used as an exit. Could it possibly be there to show the illogical way of thinking by a window as an exit instead of an open door. I feel like I can see faces but I can’t be sure because there is so much going on that it could just be stray marks. This painting has many ideas going on, but held to together by repetition on color.

When looking at the abstract painting I am able to see the influence that it had on the poetry of the school. The painting seems to be random and completely done with no boundaries, just as how the poets created there poems. The same colors are reused again and again, as how one main idea is followed through out the whole poem. Just as the poetry was based in New York city and seemed to have a feel of chaos, with so much going on. The painting looks the same with many things happening at once.

3. Reflection on the School

The New York School poets formed there own kind of poetry that was different from others. It defied standards with direct and spontaneous language. The ideas presented in the poems were not organized in any particular manner but appeared as a stream of consciousness. The poems were filled with imagery that provides a visual image in the head of the audience. It is said that the New York School Poets were a reaction to the Confessionalist movement in Contemporary Poetry. Many of the poets that belonged to school were influenced by abstract expressionist art and artists such as Jackson Pollock and Willem DeKooning.
The influence of abstract art on the poets is very evident in their work. Abstract has no sort of guidelines and is different and spontaneous. There are not precise details given to every aspect of the painting. All together the painting looks put together and turns out to be a great final piece. The poems all seem to be spontaneous and rough around the edges, but the overall meaning is insightful. The poets of school do not have strict rules they follow in order to construct a poem, like a sonnet. The end product seems to flow and is a great poem.
The poems that I have read from the New York School proved to be interesting and unlike the poetry I am used to reading. The poems were direct in the issues it presented instead of trying to decipher it. The imagery used in each poem helped explain the poem and add to visual element with its play on the language. I learned from this type of poetry, how it changes with time and become more modern and adapts with the surrounding culture.

2. Explication

One Train May Hide Another
Kenneth Koch

In a poem, one line may hide another line,
As at a crossing, one train may hide another train.
That is, if you are waiting to cross
The tracks, wait to do it for one moment at
Least after the first train is gone. And so when you read
Wait until you have read the next line--
Then it is safe to go on reading.
In a family one sister may conceal another,
So, when you are courting, it's best to have them all in view
Otherwise in coming to find one you may love another.
One father or one brother may hide the man,
If you are a woman, whom you have been waiting to love.
So always standing in front of something the other
As words stand in front of objects, feelings, and ideas.
One wish may hide another. And one person's reputation may hide
The reputation of another. One dog may conceal another
On a lawn, so if you escape the first one you're not necessarily safe;
One lilac may hide another and then a lot of lilacs and on the Appia
Antica one tomb
May hide a number of other tombs. In love, one reproach may hide another,
One small complaint may hide a great one.
One injustice may hide another--one colonial may hide another,
One blaring red uniform another, and another, a whole column. One bath
may hide another bath
As when, after bathing, one walks out into the rain.
One idea may hide another: Life is simple
Hide Life is incredibly complex, as in the prose of Gertrude Stein
One sentence hides another and is another as well. And in the laboratory
One invention may hide another invention,
One evening may hide another, one shadow, a nest of shadows.
One dark red, or one blue, or one purple--this is a painting
By someone after Matisse. One waits at the tracks until they pass,
These hidden doubles or, sometimes, likenesses. One identical twin
May hide the other. And there may be even more in there! The obstetrician
Gazes at the Valley of the Var. We used to live there, my wife and I, but
One life hid another life. And now she is gone and I am here.
A vivacious mother hides a gawky daughter. The daughter hides
Her own vivacious daughter in turn. They are in
A railway station and the daughter is holding a bag
Bigger than her mother's bag and successfully hides it.
In offering to pick up the daughter's bag one finds oneself confronted by
the mother's
And has to carry that one, too. So one hitchhiker
May deliberately hide another and one cup of coffee
Another, too, until one is over-excited. One love may hide another love
or the same love
As when "I love you" suddenly rings false and one discovers
The better love lingering behind, as when "I'm full of doubts"
Hides "I'm certain about something and it is that"
And one dream may hide another as is well known, always, too. In the
Garden of Eden
Adam and Eve may hide the real Adam and Eve.
Jerusalem may hide another Jerusalem.
When you come to something, stop to let it pass
So you can see what else is there. At home, no matter where,
Internal tracks pose dangers, too: one memory
Certainly hides another, that being what memory is all about,
The eternal reverse succession of contemplated entities. Reading
A Sentimental Journey look around
When you have finished, for Tristram Shandy, to see
If it is standing there, it should be, stronger
And more profound and theretofore hidden as Santa Maria Maggiore
May be hidden by similar churches inside Rome. One sidewalk
May hide another, as when you're asleep there, and
One song hide another song; a pounding upstairs
Hide the beating of drums. One friend may hide another, you sit at the
foot of a tree
With one and when you get up to leave there is another
Whom you'd have preferred to talk to all along. One teacher,
One doctor, one ecstasy, one illness, one woman, one man
May hide another. Pause to let the first one pass.
You think, Now it is safe to cross and you are hit by the next one. It
can be important
To have waited at least a moment to see what was already there.


The speaker of the poem is someone who wants to get there point across, by giving many examples. It could have been something that the speaker failed to see and now wants to warn the audience of. It is a point that is significance to the speaker for them to write about it. The speaker seems to be saying to some extent to not judge or pick the first think you see because there will always be some thing else that follows. It is a mistake the speaker made and does not want anyone else to follow. The beginning seems to be saying wait because what you may see may not be all that’s there. Even though you see the train and want to cross the tracks wait because it may be hiding another train. The poem continues saying what other things hide others. If you see a dog on a lawn and escape it watch out because that dog could be concealing another. It is trying to tell the audience you can’t run from everything cause the other problems will start occurring. The theme of hiding and concealing the next object is constantly reflected in each example the speaker gives. Although there are line breaks and dashes, there only few, so when they occur it is a part the speaker wants the audience to pay attention to and read differently than the rest of the poem. One of the stanzas is separated between two line breaks. This part seems to be more serious and less joking, talking about love. How when love dies there is another coming love coming behind. This section also has sayings in quotes that could have been mentioned in destruction of love in the speakers life. The poem is continuous and repetitive in the theme that one thing often has another following it no matter what the situation is. Keep your options open and be aware that other things will come.

1. Reflection

The new York School Poets are very different from anything else I have read in poetry. There never seems to be a certain structure that the poets stick, but it always flows to the rhythm of the poem. Some of the poems are longs as others are short. Some have many indents and spaces making the poem take a slow pace in reading, and others have none at all with long sentences. The poems seem to be very modern because they talk about issues and topics that people face everyday such as buying someone the perfect gift. Many of the poems that I read would trail away from the beginning topic but still include repetition. They seemed to start out simple and as it went on, it became more complicated and sophisticated. Each poem presented many images, providing a visual effect while reading the poem. The New York School Poets keep their poetry engaging by giving funny effects to objects, “The cloud is then so subtly dragged away by the silver flying machine.” I enjoyed reading these poems because they were alive with language and imagery and often had interesting views on topics.

List of Poems

One Train May Hide Another ~ Kenneth Koch

On Gifts For Grace ~ Bernadette Mayer

Fifty-Three ~ Eileen Myles

Echoes ~ Barbara Guest

Fairy Tale ~ Ron Padgett

Poet as Immortal Bird ~ Ron Padgett

Daffy Duck In Hollywood ~ John Ashbery

My Philosophy of Life ~ John Ashbery

The Blue Stairs ~ Barbara Guest

A Quiet Poem ~ Frank O'Hara

HELLO!

HONEST TO BLOG