Why I Am Not A Painter Comments

A masterful creation. A work of an intricate mind. Very powerfully crafted with deep insight.

The poet and the painter want to evade the terrible life, je crois.

I remember reading an interview in The Poetry Project Newsletter some time ago in the mid 90's and in it there was this short poem called 'Why I am not a poet', and it was riffing on this same poem by O'Hara. I wish i could remember who it was by..

Decades ago I came across this poem - and today I thought of it againThe wordsentered my life and decades ago I was a painter not a poet and these words have stuck with me since the 1970-80s Great poem thank you

Yes. That's the way it is. It comes and goes.

This poem illustrates how Frank O'Hara has a major place in a line of American poetry: free verse = Walt Whitman, Wm Carlos Williams, Allen Ginsburg, Frank O'Hara, Charles Bukowski. These poets reject traditional poetic forms as often being artificial. They also have stood out against Modernism (and much postmodernism) as being academic, elitist, and inaccessible to literate readers. This is not one of my favorite O'Hara poems, but it is one of the most often anthologized. And, by the way, Elias and Patrick, O'Hara's sexual orientation and relationships are irrelevant to this poem - though this is not always the case. So?

i really dont understand this at all, but I like the name. I have wondered why I am not a painter...being a writer instead, i never found the answer nor understood why i chose to let myself and my feelings out through words instead of a brush. Interesting thought but i seriously dont like the poem at all.

Nice. I played an imaginary background theme song as I read.

Perplexing but it shakes you up. I think this poem tries to express the different moments of creativity and how the creative spirit takes over regardless and in spite of the wishes of the creator. Different and interesting. Provokes a new poetic sensation

The poem I likes much due to its peculiar theme in sadness and expression of sadness and such things it is beautifully expressed in the poem.

paintings, poems, music....these are all forms of creative expression...this poem puts it so beautifully...

Wow, this is awesome! ! ! ! :)

An abstract expressionist poem.