Mix Tape Monday: To a Poet

This song, "To a Poet," has the most beautiful harmonzing. It gives me chills. And then the lyrics just make me feel the anguish and sadness, even though I'm not actually sad. It's very moving. The line, "But Frank put it best when he said/'You can't plan on the heart,'" forced me to do a Google search and this poem on the right is what I discovered. I'm a little surprised I hadn't read it before, but then again, I've never had a major interest in poetry. I only know O'Hara by "Having a Coke with You." Anyways, here's the song and the poem. Enjoy.

My Heart by Frank O'Hara I'm not going to cry all the time nor shall I laugh all the time, I don't prefer one "strain" to another. I'd have the immediacy of a bad movie, not just a sleeper, but also the big, overproduced first-run kind. I want to be at least as alive as the vulgar. And if some aficionado of my mess says "That's not like Frank!", all to the good! I don't wear brown and grey suits all the time, do I? No. I wear workshirts to the opera, often. I want my feet to be bare, I want my face to be shaven, and my heart-- you can't plan on the heart, but the better part of it, my poetry, is open.

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To a Poet - First Aid Kit
And you said, "Don't give me nothing
You don't want to lose"
I said, "Darling, I'll give you everything I got
If I want them to choose"

Then I got on a plane and flew
Far away from you
Though unwillingly I left
And it was so, so hard to do

The streets here at home had rapidly filled up
With the whitest of snow
And they don't make no excuse for themselves
And there's no need, I know

Now I miss you more than I can take
And I will surely break
And every morning that I wake
God, it's the same
There's nothing more to it,
I just get through it
Oh, there's nothing more to it
I just get through it


It always takes me by surprise
How dark it gets this time of the year
And how apparent it all becomes
That you're not close, not even near


No matter how many times I tell myself
I have to be sincere
I have a hard time standing up
And facing those fears


But Frank put it best when he said
"You can't plan on the heart"
Those words keep me on my feet
When I think I might just fall apart


Now I miss you more than I can take
And I will surely break
And every morning that I wake
God, it's the same
There's nothing more to it,I just get through it
Oh, there's nothing more to itI just get through it
Oh, there's nothing more to itI just get through it


And so I ask where are you now
Just when I needed you
I won't ask again
Because I know there's nothing we can do
Not now, darling, you know it's true