Step Away from Them

An Analysis of Frank Oharas A Step Away From Them At the diverge of the 20th century, the movement of recent art began to distinguish itself by moving away(predicate) from traditional and classical forms. Artists alike Pablo Picasso were deconstructing their formal techniques by abstracting forms of conceptual art. We began to enquiry and criticize Is that art? By mid-20th century, the schools of the modern movement already began to echo into literature, dance, and music. Abstract Expressionist literature emphasizes spontaneity of motions and their fleetingness.Once a detail is mentioned, it disappears tho resurfaces in the subconscious in the form of a daydream. Frank OHaras A Step Away From Them adapts his unique style of free poesy with arbitrary line breaks and enjambment. thither is a relay of split-second action followed by spontaneous thought. Overall, the poem ventures into synapses of the mind in an urban space. OHara is the observer, self-satisfied, and content. In the beginning(a) line, there is a felt quality of impulsive action. So I go gives a smell out of urgency that we experience the moment our lunch arcminute hits. The meter of each word can be equal stressed.The I is a soft vowel, therefore, there is emphasize is on so and go. OHara combines dickens senses of visual and sound with hum-colored. Both senses capture dynamic movements like when someone takes a still photo of a moving object. The image of a hack smears across the photo. There is a distinction of the way space moves. Hum-colored can resonate sound that an engine makes. When we walk out the door into the city, the pace is already set. By line 3, the mind quickly wanders to the next visual moment. Down the sidewalk tells our awareness to focus on lunch hour of laborers.We are base on balls and capturing still photos. Dirty glistening torsos signifies the way construction workers eat shirtless. Another interpretation can perceive oil rubbed on their shirt hence the term , red-hot collar workers. At this moment, OHara draws an unconscious connection with the yellow colored helmets from the previous visual of hum-colored cabs. Yellow was missed due to the motion and sound. The color resurfaces from our short-term memory. He interjects nonchalant irony and inner wit with I guess. Despite stuffing themselves, they must protect themselves from falling objects.We have a sense of OHaras humor and his eye for function. As your visual context moves upward to falling bricks, OHara draws the attention of the movement near ground floor, heels and grates. He does not add a space between lines. He follows each line with heavy enjambment. Then onto the avenue has a progression of walking around the corner to the next street. There is a new film, new spatter of paint. He refers to a movie scene in pop culture by stating Then onto the avenue where skirts are flipping supra heels and blow up over grates. (lines 9-11)In 1955, Marilyn Monroe filmed The Seven Year I tch in New York City. The scene of her skirt being blown up had caused a spectacle making Marilyn a movie sex icon. Motion of upward movement is describe with gestures like flipping above, up over, and stir up. The city is hot. According to OHara, cabs stir up the air (line 12). In the city, there is always a cab in sight. How they motion around the city block without air conditioning. There is no escape from the heated engine but OHara is indifferent and aloof by the motion around him because he odors at bargains in wrist watches (line 13-14).He is still to himself, an observer. In line 14, sawdust draws back to previous space, down the street of laborers construction site. He allows the readers thoughts to dilate at each new scene. At the end of each moment of space, he draws private almost as if he constricts his pupils to go across an off detail. There/ are cats playing in sawdust. (line 13-14) It is as if he has seen them playing from the corner of his eye. He ends line 1 4 with a period and at last begins a new sentence on line 15. The poem opens up On to Time Square, OHara bring our attention to the skyline. and higher/ the waterfalls pours lightly (lines 16-17). There is a use of abstract imagery in comparing the sky to waterfalls. When scanning the space in between the building, it narrows down further as if we look further down Broadway. The blue image may look like water pouring out. The poem takes place in the summer heat. Waterfalls have a feeling of cool air and openness but nature is contrasted by the sign / blows smoke over head (lines 15-16). To blow smoke is an idiom that describes someone telling falsehood or lie. Advertising in Time Square is saturated with hype of consumerism and billboard marketing.The same interaction of hype is exchanged by the people of Time Square, the poem follows . A Negro stands in a doorway with a toothpick, languorously agitating A blonde emit daughter clicks he smiles and rubs his chin. (lines 17-21) In the previous space, onto the Avenue, OHara makes a reference to Marilyn Monroe. She is idolized again in Time Square as the blonde chorus girl, a character she plays in most of her movies. An African-American male easily talks as if he is hounding around lazily.In an urban space, interracial lines are not separated or set by bounds. Clicks can describe how someone talks with gum in their mouth. The click can be an interpreted as the tapping sound of high heels walking by. Everything/ suddenly honks (line 21-22). Our attention is drawn to pause again to gridlock on Broadway. We may think it is the blonde who causes everyone to honk. OHara reverts back to time and day, . 1240 / of a Thursday (lines 22-23). We are reminded that the hour is coming to a close. OHara is consumed by time, like the bargain wristwatch on the avenue.To him, with whatever is going on, time marks the next. The poem changes momentum when OHara sits down to eat. He quickly writes in a style like Edwin Denby, a critic and poet of modern dance. Comparing neon in the daylight is a / great pleasure with light bulb we associate neon with pictorial color and light bulbs being plain white. Time Square is synonymous for its light and color at night. This is the place OHara has lunch. He finds the daylight enjoyable and adds texture by juxtaposing words that provide a mixture of different culture and art. He sets more periods and commons like he is itemizing a list.He spells out names as though he is thinking about them in association of. There is less action or verbs and more inward thinking. He has an American cheeseburger and chocolate malt in an Italian Actresss restaurant, JULIETS CORNER. I think about when people migrated to United States and how they take on the American tradition. Comparing Juliet with Giuletta Masina, it is typical to change name spelling to English form. Giuletta Masinas husband, Federico Fellini writes and directs movie. His signature style is bizarre, foreign, and p hantasmagoric.OHara writes in Italian e bell attrice which translates to beautiful actress. I imagine when OHara watched foreign movies they had English subtitle. So far, names mentioned are all artists who have an influence in the arts. OHara is an elitist. It is who he knows that allows him to separates himself from mainstream. He watches foreign films, speaks Italian, and wonders about the function of clothing. He loves all forms of art. Still, the humble, ubiquitous cab captures his eye, OHara states A lady in foxes on such a day puts her poodle in a cab. (lines30-32) In line 31, on such a day reminds us about the heat.There is a surreal moment about a lady wearing fur carrying a dog while he drinks a cold drink. She is out of place by wearing something out of season. He does not linger in the thought. He moves on to the avenue, on an upbeat, pointing out that it is the Puerto Ricans that makes it beautiful and warm. The poem makes another iconic turn. He mentions the deaths o f three friends, a writer, a musician, and a painter. OHara poses a question But is the / earth as full of life was full, of them? (lines 33-34) Lang Bunny, John Latouche, Jackson pollack were able to capture life through their art.When they passed away was the world done with them? Puerto Ricans, in the avenue, were carrying on. Everything around still was beating and alive. It was through life moved on, OHara writes And one has eaten and one walks, past the cartridge holders with nudes and the posters for BULLFIGHT and the Manhattan Storage Warehouse, which theyll soon tear down. I used to think they had the Armory Show there. (lines 40-46) It makes me think about how the modern art movement started. The impressionist painting of Manets Le Dejeuner Dur Lherbe had shocked the art world because clothed men were painted having a lunch with a nude woman.Goyas realist painting of Bullfighting spoke about humanity. He was the first to paint blood during the Spanish Revolution. Howev er, where mass production of magazine and poster were interchange, people ate and walk pass, the world was full of life. The world keeps moving. It feels like an end of an era when the poem mentioned Manhattan Storage Warehouse was being part down. The Armory Show is also known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art which was formed in New York. OHara thought that collection was here. There is a feeling that the exhibition is held somewhere else.OHara ends on a brighter note. He is self-satified. Before he heads back to work, he has papaya juice. My boob is in my / pocket, it is Poems by Pierre Reverdy. (lines 49-50) The heart symbolizes love and affection. To have it in your pocket means that it is carried close to him. Pierre Reverdy is a critic, writer, poet of Cubism, Pablo Picasso. OHara love for the art will always be with him. Imitation of Step Away From Them Im waking up from my first nap of day, the phone rings underneath a noise of pigeons. The angular sun peeks through lace curtains while dust particles slowly attempt to move.After the 10th ring, Im enquire if it was important mostly likely, not. Im out the door down the three flights of winding stairs, let the kid from Apartment K through the gage gate. K collects bright colored cans around the neighborhood. I refused to make eye contact. Someone is still buzzing him in, speaking inaudible sounds through a dull rattling speaker. A van drives by. How many rings does it take? On Mission Street, the 14 runs every 5 minutes. Stores are tagged but stocked with novelty items of Golden Gates, painted ladies, and cable cars. Whoever wears these shirts, might as well, give up their wallets.A bootleg VHS copy of Natural Born Killers is being sold by a street vendor. Tiny feet hurry up the second floor. The Haitian drums resonated across the wooden floors, bouncing off high ceiling. Its a Wednesday another day same as the others. We are warming up for the next class. Its was only a year ago tha t they decided to robbed complexs. Ran, Rich, and Joker were in jail now. Im swinging my arm trying to break the chain. Were they ever free? Was it the squeak in their voice that gave it away? Swinging and stomping. I am raising my machete to cut through sugar cane fields. My heart is in-sync with the drums.