HiH has returned to the question of a "social" poet and whether Frank O'Hara and/or Bruce Andrews might be one.



David had originally asked:



Who is the more 'social' poet -- Frank O'Hara or Bruce Andrews? It would seem that optimism or something resembling grace would be an axiom of a truly social poetry. As I define it are there then any social language poets?



Perhaps then the role of the poet is not to create a discourse in which only the initiate can participate but a social language that desires all to speak, hear and be heard.



To which I responded:



iI guess I think of O'Hara as less a social than a sociable poet, someone who's always talking to everybody and reporting on talking to everybody, friendly and open in that way--but the question is whether that sociability is just being reported on at a remove or whether the reader is really invited into it, included in it.



You make the call. Two examples, chosen at semi-random.



O'Hara, from "In Memory of My Feelings" (chosen in part because David cited "grace" as one of the qualities of a social poet):



Beards growing, and the constant anxiety

over looks. I'll shave before she wakes up. Sam Goldwyn

spent $2,000,000 on Anna Sten, but Grushenka left America.

One of me is standing in the waves, an ocean bather,

or I am naked with a plate of devils at my hip.

Grace

to be born and live as variously as possible. The conception

of the masque barely suggests the sordid identifications.

I am a Hittite in love with a horse. I don't know what blood's

in me I feel like an African prince I am a girl walking downstairs

in a red pleated dress I am a champion taking a fall

I am a jockey with a sprained ass-hole I am the light mist

in which a face appears



Andrews, from "Mistaken Identity":



The situation has a situation

Electro-convulsive opinions eat us

Pig brink dollarization, the marriage of money gobble gobble money

Profit margin american cream dream cultures of vultures

A social predicament, the losers are self-preoccupied

Jellyfish FBI -- are you a vending machine?

Who fights the free? -- at least the exploited ones have a future

Dayglo ethics, corporate global chucksteak

Lose the flag, nightstick imitation value goosing me

Estados Unidos, suck o loaded pistol

Scale model blonde -- zoloft, paxil, luvox, celexa

Need money? -- it's easy, it's simple

Dot-commie foreskin arrevederci

Hot mark-up johnny on the spectacle

You as the human labor saving device

Culture, please -- all very non-missionary

Massive doses of dog tranquilizer -- to stop being reeducated

Hostesss of the ecosystem