Wishing You All The Best
to David L.
How can it always be terrible to think
the beloved is dead. (At least you had one.)
So moody! One minute we are crying,
not the next. Today, Thanksgiving Day,
means staying in for once. I'm visiting
Frank O'Hara and his closest friends
(tons) in a book called Homage to Frank O'Hara.
I didn't even know him or any of them. . .
though when Octavio Paz turned eighty
I heard John Ashbery read at the Met
but could not grasp that crazy happy whine
of his, whatever it is. The point is
once you know Frank O'Hara's life and work
the rest is up to you to be emphatic
and brave, to take your sleep when it comes,
to treat our wonderful friends like him, that angel.
What a wonderful course in life. The best
days are here and will be. That's prophetic!
I smile. See how much I have learned.
-- Reetika Vazirani
"Wishing You All the Best," a previously unpublished poem by the late Reetika Vazirani, surfaced last summer when I went through old correspondence. The poem is dated "30 Nov 96." DL
