A Word Of Warning From Frank O'Hara

Just a note: All those wishing to affect Frank O'Hara's freedom of style, especially his fecundity that would appear too blasé for literature, beware that the homosexual sensibility, historically defined and authentic, is not easy to imitate if you don't have one. That's why there's so much critical apparati aimed at "The City Poet" that is not Frank O'Hara. Not too many American individuals are equipped to aim his or her intellect at the crosshairs of Catholicism and homosexuality and emerge from it without appearing embarrassingly superfluous. Devotionally speaking, a look at the artistic depictions of Saint Sebastian through the ages produces either an instant familiarity or camp of the highest order.