On "The Day Lady Died" Anthony Libby The extreme vividness of "The Day Lady Died" depends not

so much on visualization as evocation; a precise state of consciousness is delineated largely through the abstract color of proper names. The poem's final image "she !hispered a song along the "eyboard" is enormously effective# in part because it is almost the poem's only image. $rom "%&'ara on the (ilver )ange." Contemporary Literature *+,-./. 0eal 1o!ers As an elegy for 1illie 'oliday# the poem could easily follo! tradition and have the !hole !orld mourn her loss; instead# things go on as usual# and the only odd occurrence involves 2iss (till!agon at the ban"# !ho "doesn't even loo" up my balance for once in her life." Apart from that small act of grace# the city is its normal self# and %''ara follo!s his routine up to the moment of buying "a 034 5%)6 7%(T !ith her face on it"8 and 9 am s!eating a lot by no! and thin"ing of leaning on the :ohn door in the ; (7%T !hile she !hispered a song along the "eyboard to 2al 4aldron and everyone and 9 stopped breathing The climax is the discovery of "Lady's" death and the indelible memory of one soft song that lives on# but the poem is essentially about a day in the life of $ran" %''ara and his city. Death is one of many random things that could punctuate and focus the seemingly unconnected activities of an other!ise typical day# ma"ing everything from a shoeshine to a bottle of (trega purchased in a li<uor store glo! !ith its o!n brilliant significance. $rom "The =ity Limits" in >im 3lledge# ed. Frank O'Hara: To Be True to a City. ?niversity of 2ichigan 7ress# +,,@. 6evin (tein The tone at the opening of the poem is giddy and excited. After all# this is a some!hat glib spea"er !ho is readying himself for dinner at the home of someone he doesn't "no!# !ho can smart alec"ly refer to the "poets A of Bhana#" !ho is prone to "stroll" and "casually as"" for cigarettes# and !ho can "practically" go "to sleep !ith <uandariness" over the simple decision of !hat boo" to buy a friend. This is not a spea"er burdened !ith metaphysical deliberations about the meaning of life. 3ven !hen he sees the "034 5%)6 7%(T !ith her face on it#" he refuses to brea" into discourse on the brevity of human life# "thin"ing#" instead# in visual and sensory images. 'e recalls an instance !hen he heard 1illie 'oliday sing so s!eetly that life itself seemed to halt in deathly pause !hile "everyone and 9 stopped breathing." ?p to this point# he had offered the reader an ontological account of selfhood based largely on a narrative retelling of the !ay the individual fragments of his day melded into a mysteriously unified !hole. 1ut at this :uncture# !here anticipation and profound loss meet head on# the collision

results in image# scene# a moment of experience !hich itself is of ultimate value. The present moment and the remembered one do not re<uire metaphysical rumination in order to clarify them. That "ind of deliberation has preceded the poem onto the page8 the understanding that life is unpredictable and crass# capable of imparting immense pleasure and e<ually formidable pain. Although %''ara may very !ell have agreed !ith the 'eraclitean conception of a universe forever in the process of change# he !ould never use 'eraclitus's fragments as poetic epigraphs *as 3liot did/ or allo! such thin"ing to impose an overtly philosophical structure on his !or". %''ara has already decided on these epistemological and ontological issues before the poem began. And more importantly# they !ere first of all personal values# !hich naturally *but secondarily/ gave form to artistic values. $rom "3verything the %pposite" in Frank O'Hara: To Be True to a City. 3d. >im 3lledge. ?niversity of 2ichigan 7ress# +,,@. 1rad Booch The ne!s of 'oliday's death led %''ara to thin" bac" to the last time he had heard her sing. 2s fullest exposure to her had been t!o years earlier at Loe!'s (heridan on (eventh Avenue and T!elfth (treet in the summer %f +,;- !hen she had appeared a fe! hours late for her midnight sho!. (he !as forced to perform in the cavernous old movie theatre because she !as not permitted due to an arrest for heroin use to sing in a bar that served drin"s. "4e didn't leave#" recalls 9rma 'urley# !ho accompanied %''ara along !ith 2i"e Boldberg# >oan 2itchell# and 0orman 1luhm. "$ran" said# '9 !ill !ait.' 9 thin" she !as coming from 7hiladelphia. (he finally arrived pretty zon"ed out. 1ut she did sing." %''ara's reaction to her performance !as as exhilarated as his reaction to >udy Barland's sho! at the 7alace Theatre# after !hich he had commented to >ohn 1utton# "4ell# 9 guess she's better than 7icasso." 1ut the last time %''ara had heard 'oliday sing !as at the $ive (pot# a :azz bar on $ifth (treet and Third Avenue at =ooper (<uare# !hich !as beginning to replace the =edar as the gathering spot of the artists. Li"e the (an )emo a fe! years earlier# the =edar had been pic"ed up by the media and !as no! overcro!ded !ith tourists on the loo"out for 7olloc" li"e painters# and young guys cruising for loose "art girls." At the $ive (pot the painters could mello! out listening to the :azz of >ohn =oltrane# %rnette =oleman# Thelonious 2on"# or =harlie 2ingus. 6enneth 6och and Larry )ivers had begun staging :azz and poetry evenings there in response to similar events in (an $rancisco initiated by Allen Binsberg and 6enneth )exroth. %ne night 6och had read his poems !ith the accompaniment of 2al 4aldron# a blac" pianist !ho usually accompanied 'oliday. (he sho!ed up to visit !ith 4aldron and later in the night !as persuaded to brea" the la! by singing. "9t !as very close to the end of her life# !ith her voice almost gone# :ust li"e a !hisper# :ust li"e the taste of very old !ine# but full of spirit#" recalls 6och. "3verybody !anted her to sing. 3verybody !as crazy about her. (he sang some songs in this very !hispery beautiful voice. The place !as <uite cro!ded. $ran" !as standing near the toilet door so he had a side vie!. And 2al 4aldron !as at the piano. (he sang these songs and it !as very moving." %''ara had !ritten his poem on his lunch hour. Later he caught the train !ith Le(ueur to 3ast 'ampton !here they !ere met by 2i"e Boldberg in the olive drab 1ugatti he had bought the year before !hen he and (outhgate !ere in 9taly on their honeymoon. )eady !ith a thermos of martinis and plastic cups# both a !elcoming gesture and a self protective ploy so that he could drin" !hile !aiting for the inevitably delayed train# Boldberg explained in the par"ing lot# "4e're eating in# the dinner !as called off." %n the drive to the house Boldberg !as renting that summer on Beorgica 7ond# the only topic of discussion !as the tragedy of 1illie 'oliday's death at the young age of forty four. "9've been playing her records all afternoon#" said Boldberg. Arriving bac" at the house# Boldberg put a 1illie 'oliday record on the hi fi !hile 7atsy (outhgate# having finished putting the t!o "ids to bed# brought out a tray of hors d'oeuvres.

%''ara# !ho had been silent about the matter throughout the trip# pulled a poem out of his poc"et that he announced he had :ust !ritten that afternoon and read it straight do!n to its concluding stanza8 and 9 am s!eating a lot by no! and thin"ing of leaning on the :ohn door in the ; (7%T !hile she !hispered a song along the "eyboard to 2al 4aldron and everyone and 9 stopped breathing $rom City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank OHara. =opyright C +,,D by 1rad Booch. )obert von 'allberg 'amburger indeed. The contours seem to have been shaved off the experience the poem reports. 7oetry from 0e! 5or" or Bhana# Eerlaine# 'esiod# 1rendan 1ehan# or Benet *lines +F +G/8 the time# the place *trains named after "points in time#" as they say/# even the language matters little. The !hole !orld and all of history is right there in 2anhattan# on +- >uly +,;,# for the buying# piece by piece# of (trega# Bauloises# 7icayunes *lines H+ H;/. Distance is reduced by the pulp press# !hich is dominated by the lo!er middle class *the Ne !ork Post" not the Times/; poetry# modernism# these international zones of experience have no special force here. A? art is brought close not by tradition# as 3liot had said# but by mass production# cheapness. All principles for arraying emphasis and registering discriminations have been flattened. The rhyme in the third fine is only a chance thing# and the first of the poem's nineteen "and"s *in the same line/ ma"es an arbitrary connection. And as syntax and prosody go# so does social order8 %''ara says that he !ill be the dinner guest of strangers that night and then recounts his efforts to find suitable gifts for 7atsy and 2i"e# !ho are made to seem his hosts." This easy familiarity# %''ara suggests 7atsy# 2i"e# Linda should not be too easily sniffed at; the reference to the !ell "no!n translator of 'omer invo"es an ancient sanction for gift giving and the entertaining of strangers and for paratactic syntax. The po!er of the poem is in its inadvertent# banal approach to an earnest genre8 the sub:ect of the elegy does not even emerge until the poem is nearly complete# as though the great theme *death/ can no! only be tal"ed around8 ... a 034 5%)6 7%(T !ith her face on it and 9 am s!eating a lot by no! and thin"ing of leaning on the :ohn door in the ; (7%T !hile she !hispered a song along the "eyboard to 2al 4aldron and everyone and 9 stopped breathing. 1eside the example of 1illie 'oliday# !ell eroded by the time she !or"ed !ith 2al 4aldron *+,;+,;,/# Partisan #e$ie complaints about the difficulty of ma"ing art in a culture so leveled by mass culture as America !as in +,;, sound disingenuous. $or most of her career# her audiences !ere small and sometimes difficult of access. 9n +,F- the 0e! 5or" 7olice Department denied her a cabaret licence# as many other :azz musicians !ere similarly punished for drug offenses. *During her final illness# she !as arrested in her 0e! 5or" hospital room for illegal possession of drugs./ (he !as a singer !ho "ne! !ell ho! difficult reaching a fit audience might be# but even in her decline# %''ara says# she too" one's breath a!ay and this elegy is literally directed at the renovation of that clichI of mass culture advertising# the "breath ta"ing performance." The poem ends !ith much more than the apparent universal s!oon for a great torch singer. "3veryone#" he says in the last line# suggesting that a poet might !ell ta"e pleasure in +,;, from the fact that some art can directly reach us all# and that nearly all art# African# $rench# and 9rish#

can be had no! for the as"ing. The 1astille had been stormed# and if it turned out to be emptier than expected only the expectations deserve criticism. 0e! 5or"# even the Ne !ork Post" !as moving still. $rom %meri&an poetry and Cu'ture" ()*+,()-.. =opyright C +,G; by the 7resident and $ello!s of 'arvard =ollege. =harles Altieri 7aul =arroll is the first critic 9 "no! to claim a really influential role for %''ara in the poetry of the sixties. . . . 'e ma"es clear for poets ho! the dada and expressionist doctrines of creation can !or" for them# for his poems continually insist that they are not representations of reality but the enactment by the artist of certain attitudes and choices !ithin that reality. =onse<uently there are no canonical or privileged sub:ects for poetry8 "Anything# literally# can exist in a poem; and anything can exist in !hatever !ay the poet chooses." %''ara then sho!s ho! the poet need no longer feel committed to organic unity as a principle of poetic construction. 'is details need not be chosen because they enhance a specific lyric point or attitude; the ob:ects chosen can embody the multiple facets of experience# only some of !hich might be essential to the lyric feeling. This antiorganicist aesthetic =arroll defines as the aesthetic of the "impure poem" . . . . "The Day Lady Died" is =arroll's example of the archetypal impure poem; but that poem to me is one of the finest examples of the rich poetic possibilities in the domestic lyric. The poem not only captures the vitality of prereflective experience but arranges that experience so that it participates in and evo"es for consciousness a complex# satisfying and relatively traditional lyric emotion. . . . %ne !ay of seeing ho! the poem is impure# =arroll suggests# is to recognize that t!enty lines are devoted to the casual events of %''ara's day and only four to the ostensive sub:ect of the poem. 'e goes on# though# to offer t!o insights that help explain ho! the artist's apparently free creative selection of details really creates a single complex lyric emotion8 9 !onder ho! touching that beautiful final memory . . . !ould be if %''ara had preceded it !ith emotional tributes and "props" customary in most traditional elegies. . . . 9n another sense# "The Day Lady Died" isn't about 1illie 'olliday at all. 9t is about the common but sobering feeling that life continues on its humbling !ay despite the tragic death of an important artist or some loved one. 1ut it is not only the general configuration of details# the contrast bet!een humbling life and the suddenness of death# that unifies the poem. The actual particulars by !hich the poem captures the vitality of life at the same time constantly call attention to their o!n contingency and perpetual hovering on the brin" of disconnection. %''ara has plans for dinner but does not "no! the people !ho !ill feed him; he is divorced in space and attitude from the Bhana poets# in time and habit from the !riters mentioned in the third stanza *one usually does not "go to sleep !ith <uandariness" one sleeps from boredom and the lac" of choice but %''ara !ants to suggest connections bet!een multiplicity# lac" of connections guiding choice# and forms of death/; he encounters probably for the hundredth time a ban" teller be has no communication !ith# yet !ho also disproves his expectations; and even the apparently most arbitrary item# the reference to 1astille Day# has a curious appositeness in a poem so thoroughly about death# separation# and the fragility of established order. 2oreover# the "and" rhetoric so pronounced in the poem further enhances one's sense of the tangential and problematic lin"s bet!een particulars8 parataxis calls

attention to the rush of time piling up details united only by se<uential time alien to specifically human patterns of relationship. The rush of life then embodies also a process of continual death leading to the climactic stoppages of life and breath in the last four lines. 1ut the initial t!enty lines also allo! the poet to find a meaning in 1illie's death. (eeing in her art and his memories of it the experience of connection counters and helps mollify the pains of discontinuity. 4hat he remembers about 1illie is a moment of stasis that is at once death and very intense life death because it so divorces him from the normal *and insignificant activities of his daily life# and intense life for precisely the same reason since it has been that life !hich is really involvement in continual deaths. The moment he remembers is one of absolute communication !hen 1illie controlled the entire audience and led them to a single ecstasy *"everyone and 9 stopped breathing"/. And %''ara's poem is itself an act li"e 1illie 'oliday's; the full elegiac effect depends on the reader's union !ith his memory. Li"e her singing# the poem also can claim at least for a moment to transcend the contingent multiplicities of daily experience and# through the poem's deliberate slo!ing in these last lines# allo! a brief space !here readers all stop that rushing breath al!ays associated !ith process in %''ara and realize ho! art and memory can console in the face of recurrent death. %''ara is not often so good. but neither are any other poets of the sixties. 0onetheless# =arroll is correct in insisting that "The Day Lady Died" is a crucial touchstone for postmodern poetry. The poem exemplifies ho! postmodern literature can thrive# though oppressed on the one side by philosophical nihilism and on the other by the oppressive burden of literary history al!ays reminding poets of ho! little room there seems to be for meaningful originality. Literature can remain honest and "de mystified#" !ithout succumbing to self pitying nostalgia or refining a!ay its content in the self conscious acrobatics of !hat >ohn 1arth has called "the literature of exhaustion." 0ot only poetry# but even some of the basic values of civilized life can be discovered by pushing further than the past into the manifold particulars and the texture of domestic contemporary life. $rom /n'ar0in0 the Temp'e: Ne 1ire&tions in %meri&an Poetry durin0 the ()2.s. =opyright C +,-, by Associated ?niversity 7resses# 9nc. =harles 2oles!orth The alienation and confusion of urban life# especially at the street level# come into disorienting focus !ith the ne!s of the death of 1illie 'oliday# the :azz singer !hose self destructiveness *"'eroin "ills you the slo! !ay"/ clearly mesmerizes %''ara !hen it is transformed into a lyrical !hisper. The poem# for all its looseness# tries to mimic that improvisational <uality# as %''ara's o!n self destructiveness *the Bauloises and 7icayunes/ shifts uneasily beneath a cover of stylish gesture *"casually as""/. ?nli"e the Binsberg "(utra#" this phenomenal present intersects a transcendent moment !ith evanescent ease. The ease# ho!ever# belies the anxiety *"9 am s!eating a lot by no!"/ that %''ara attempts to conceal in a supernaturalistic :ournalism *the poem opens by telling us it is >uly +-th and %''ara's s!eating can obviously be "explained" by the summer heat of 0e! 5or"/. The sense of audience in %''ara's poem challenges easy definition. 9n one sense the poem is clearly demotic; its diction and ordinariness invite the most inclusive set of readers# as if the audience !ere to be congruent !ith that of the Ne !ork Post. 1ut about half!ay through *about !here the above <uote begins/ the selectivity of the spea"er and his highbro! cultural concerns <uiver ironically against the foreground of the casual "everyday" shopper. %''ara's audience apparently narro!s to practically the same people !e described as the audience of 1ishop's "=ir<ue D''iver." 1ut "culture" in %''ara's !orld is more !idely defined than !e might expect in an academic poet. $or no sooner does he leave the Bolden Briffin than %''ara returns to a 0e! 5or" scene that millions of people *literally/ !ould recognize and presents us !ith a "typical" urban experience by having the ne!spaper headline# !ith its announcement of

some tragic "event#" serve as a sudden# crude displacement of our reverie. %bviously# more people in America could recognize and empathize !ith the structuring e$ent in %''ara's poem than !ith the e<uivalent moment in 1ishop or Binsberg. 1ut then# of course# %''ara ta"es us from the universally available front page of the Ne !ork Post to a moment from the past open only to the cognoscenti. As %''ara presents the moment# he seems to have a double sense of his audience8 for those !ho recognize 2al 4aldron as 1illie 'oliday's accompanist there is a shoc" of recognition# and the moment's uni<ueness is heightened# its transitoriness made more vulnerable# more precious. %n the other hand# the !orde$eryone in the last line refers to the audience that particular night# the people !ho admire 1illie 'oliday's genius *regardless of !hether they've heard her in a "live" performance/# and finally all the urban throng# !ho by their momentarily caught breaths signal their admiration for the marvellous and for their o!n mortality. 9n many !ays this poem elegizes !ith traditional devices# praising the dead artist as someho! the "carrier" of our universal mortality and through the artist's heightened sensitivity creating a special occasion for intense reflection. %''ara's poetry# even as early as the first years of the +,;@s# operated !ith split a!areness# and split intentions. =learly resembling 4hitman in his democratizing impulses# his attempt to devalue "poetic" language and replace it !ith a demotic# spontaneous language# %''ara also operates in the tradition of $rench surrealism# especially as that tradition !as transmitted to this country through painters such as those in the 0e! 5or" school. This tradition contains elitist elements; in it the artist is presented as a priest figure# though his liturgy is intensely individualistic and his altar is his o!n studio. 1ecause of this :oining of impulses# %''ara's poetry !as little appreciated by either academics# !ho found it too unfinished# or the larger audience of general readers# !ho found it too hermetic. (uch a split in audience results from trying to :oin potentially conflicting artistic aims# and it continues to plague American poetry. 2ost poets are un!illing to accept the minority status of poetry# or at least to use the inevitable smallness of its audience to :ustify continued use of self protective irony. 4hat %''ara never openly addressed# because of his o!n temperament and his sense of poetic ends# !as :ust this split impulse in American poetry8 to spea" openly to all# and to !hisper only to other li"e souls. 1ut then most poets today are more the victims of the split than its open challengers. 9t might also serve us !ell to be a bit more schematic for a moment. 9magine the follo!ing four poems placed along a spectrum8 1ishop's "=ir<ue D''iver#" (hapiro's "Auto 4rec"#" Binsberg's "(unflo!er (utra#" and %''ara's "The Day Lady Died." %bviously# as !e move on this spectrum from 1ishop to %''ara# !e are increasingly submerged in the mundane details of unrelieved dailiness# and any preset aestheticized frame!or" fades a!ay. *9n %''ara's poem there are aesthetic ob:ects# such as boo"s of poems# but they are clearly e<uated !ith Bautois cigarettes and the Ne !ork Post in the realm of mere commodities./ Also# the same movement along this spectrum ta"es us a!ay from the personal# disinterested stance of 1ishop to!ard the intimate and self revealing spea"er in Binsberg's poem. 1ut then# and this is important for our argument# as !e reach %''ara the immersion in the mundane is chec"ed to a certain extent by a dulling of the tones of intimacy. 0o! it is true that %''ara's voice in his poem reflects the numbing grief and <uieting nostalgia that he feels suddenly over!helm him at the end of the poem. 1ut the felt !eight and presence of the ob:ects %''ara details in the poem flatten and almost oppress anyone !ho loo"s to them for significance; the ob:ects are clearly in the poem as an antipoetic !eight. "9 !ant the poem to be the sub:ect# and not about it#" %''ara said# and in this poem he comes close to realizing that aesthetic. As the spea"er in Binsberg's poem erects his mystical a!areness# he "descends" to ob:ects belo! the level of mundane commerce and surrounds himself !ith the dis3e&ta membra ofindustrialized# urbanized man. There# as if by a "ind of !illed reversal# transcendence appears in this unpromising context. 9n %''ara's !orld# the context is one of sufficient ob:ects; and the transcendence# such as it is# evanescently captures the sub:ect# but hardly transforms him. 4hat happens on the spectrum instructs us in !hat happened to an important segment of American poetry in the late fifties and early sixties# for 9 !ould argue that in a "ey sense the spectrum folds bac" on itself# if !e consider the detached#

suspended sensibility of the spea"ers. 9nstead of !hat !e find in 1ishop# a !orld of aesthetic ob:ects considered !ith fond irony# !e discover in %''ara's poem a gathering of mundane ob:ects fondled by an aestheticizing irony. *9t may also be instructive to notice that in both poems the spea"er gradually moves his or her o!n affective response to the foreground as the poem ends./ 1ut the t!o attitudes are similar in their gesture of holding up an ob:ect ta"en from its context# "lifted" in the several meanings of that !ord# and using that ob:ect as a "ind of cathexis for other!ise unformulable recognitions. This pattern is one of the traditional forms of lyric poetry" to be sure# but here it enables us to focus on ho! American lyric poets !ant to approach the !orld of ob:ects but often do so by falling bac" on traditional methods. $rom The Fier&e /mbra&e: % 4tudy of Contemporary %meri&an Poetry. =opyright C +,-, by the =urators of the ?niversity of 2issouri. 2ar:orie 7erloff "9n one brief poem#" Ted 1errigan said in his obituary essay on %''ara# "he seemed to create a !hole ne! "ind of a!areness of feeling# and by this a !hole ne! "ind of poetry# in !hich everything could be itself and still be poetry." 4hat 1errigan means here# 9 thin"# is that %''ara dispenses !ith all the traditional props of elegy the statement of lament# the consolation motif# the procession of mourners# the pathetic fallacy# and so on and still manages to pay an intensely moving tribute to the great :azz singer. 9t is not an easy feat. 9n his o!n earlier elegies# for example the four poems prompted by the sudden tragic death of the young >ames Dean in +,;;# %''ara often ma"es a straightfor!ard statement of lament and complaint# thus ris"ing sentimentality# much as 4illiam =arlos 4illiams does in his "3legy for D. '. La!rence#" !hich begins8 Breen points on the shrub and poor La!rence dead the night damp and misty and La!rence no more in the !orld to ans!er April's promise !ith a fury of labor against !aste# !aste and life's coldness. %''ara avoids the bathos inherent in such a frontal attac" by ma"ing no reference at all to Lady Day until the t!enty fifth line of his poem# and then only obli<uely8 the poet catches a glimpse of "a 034 5%)6 7%(T !ith her face on it." The title leads us to expect an elegy or at least an account of 1illie 'oliday's death; instead# %''ara traces the pro&ess !hereby he comes across the ne!s of that death# a process so immediate# so authentic that !hen !e come to the last four lines# !e participate in his poignant memory of Lady Day's performance. )eading the last six !ords of the poem# "and everyone and 9 stopped breathing" *reminiscent of the arresting ending of 5eats's "9n 2emory of 2a:or )obert Bregory"8 "but a thought A %f that late death too" all my heart for speech"/# !e too stop breathing. $or a moment# ho!ever brief# memory and art enable us to transcend the ordinary particulars of existence. 'o! does the poet accomplish thisJ 9f !e loo" at the details that ma"e up the first t!enty five lines of the poem# !e see that they are not# after all# as random as they appear to be. As =harles Altieri has observed8 "The actual particulars by !hich the poem captures the vitality of life at the same time constantly call attention to their o!n contingency and perpetual hovering on the brin" of disconnection." %''ara "no!s exactly that he !ill get off the train at -8+; and go to dinner# but he doesn't "no! the people !ho !ill feed him. 'e goes to the ban" !here the barely familiar teller "2iss (till!agon *first name Linda 9 once

heard/" disproves his expectations by not loo"ing up his "balance for once in her life." 'e cannot decide !hat boo" to buy for 7atsy (outhgate and practically goes to sleep "!ith <uandariness." This is a particularly odd detail8 !hen one is in a <uandary# one may !ell suffer from insomnia but hardly from sleepinessK A similar disconnection characterizes the net!or" of proper names and place references in the poem. %n the one hand# the poet's consciousness is dra!n to the foreign or exotic8 Bhana# the Bolden Briffin# Eerlaine# 1onnard# 'esiod# trans. )ichmond Lattimore# 1rendan 1ehan# Le Ba'&on" Les N50res" Benet# (trega# Bauloises# 7icayunes. %n the other# the poem contains a set of native American references8 "shoeshine#" "the muggy street beginning to sun#" "a hamburger and a malted#" "an ?gly 034 4%)LD 4)9T90B#" ".th Avenue#" "a 034 5%)6 7%(T#" "the ; (7%T#" "the :ohn door#" and the reference to 1illie's accompanist# 2al 4aldron. 4hy does %''ara introduce Eerlaine and Benet# Bauloises and the Bolden Briffin into a poem about 1illie 'olidayJ 9 thin" because he !ants to ma"e us see and this is his great tribute to Lady Day that she embodies both the foreign exotic and the native American. As a person# 1illie 'oliday !as# of course# <uintessentially American8 a southern 1lac" !ho had experienced typical hardships on the road to success# a !oman of great passions !ho finally succumbed to her terrible drug addiction# a victim of $19 agents and police raids. 9n this sense# hers is the !orld of muggy streets# hamburgers and malteds# the :ohn door# the "; (7%T." 1ut her great voice transcends !hat she is in life# lin"ing her to the poets# dramatists# and artists cited in the first part# to Le Ba'&on and Les Ni0r5s" to Bauloises and (trega. 3ven the name Lady Day *ingeniously reversed in the elegy's title/ reconciles these opposites. Disconnections !hich turn out to be connections# isolated moments in time !hich lead to one moment transcending time everything in the elegy !or"s in this !ay. The syntax is particularly interesting in this regard. The paratactic structure *and ... and ... and/# lin"ing short declarative statements se<uentially rather than causally# calls attention to !hat seems to be the meaningless flux of time. %ne moment is succeeded by another as $ran" moves bac" and forth from street to street# from store to store. 1ut then it seems as if he is virtually running out of steam. The con:unctions become increasingly insistent *eleven of the poem's nineteen and's occur in the last ten lines/# and the pace slo!s do!n until finally the se<uence of meaningless moments is replaced by the one moment of memory !hen Lady Day enchanted her audience by the po!er of her art. Time suddenly stops. %''ara does not have to say here# as he did in "$or >ames Dean#" "$or a young actor 9 am begging A peace# Bods.... 9 spea" as one !hose filth A is li"e his o!n#" or as 4illiams says in the La!rence elegy# "(oro! for the young A that La!rence has passed A un!anted from 3ngland." "The Day Lady Died" moves surely and s!iftly to its understated climax; it establishes the singer as an authentic presence even though the poem never mentions her by name and seems to be "about" the poet's o!n activities# his trivial pre!ee"end errands on a typical >uly $riday in muggy 2anhattan. $rom Frank OHara: % Poet %mon0 Painters. =opyright C +,-- by 2ar:orie 7erloff. Andre! )oss8 "The Death of Lady Day" (ome of those !ho attended $ran" %''ara's funeral in +,.. heard Larry )ivers read a speech !hich they found distasteful. The offending portion !as a graphic account of the state of %''ara's body on his hospital deathbed8

This extraordinary man lay !ithout a pillo! in a bed that loo"ed li"e a large crib.... 'e !as purple !herever his s"in sho!ed through the !hite hospital go!n. 'e !as a <uarter larger than usual. 3very fe! inches there !as some se!ing composed of dar" blue thread. (ome stitching !as straight and three or four inches long# others !ere longer and semicircular. The lids of both eyes !ere bluish blac". 9t !as hard to see his beautiful blue eyes !hich receded a little into his head. 'e breathed !ith <uic" gasps. 'is !hole body <uivered. There !as a tube in one of his nostrils do!n to his stomach. %n paper he !as improving. 9n the crib he loo"ed li"e a shaped !ound# an innocent victim of someone else's !ar. 0ot everyone# ho!ever# found these comments inappropriate. That evening# in a bar# )ivers recounted the details to Andy 4arhol and recalled ho!# at the funeral# "everyone !as screaming at LhimM to shut up." 4arhol noted8 "9t sounded li"e a very 7op eulogy to me :ust the surface things. 9t !as :ust !hat 9 hoped people !ould do for me if 9 died." 9n fact# the circumstances of %''ara's death inspired another thought on 4arhol's part that has since proved to be prophetic8 "9t !as scary to thin" that you could lose your life if you !ere ta"en to the !rong hospital or if you happened to get the !rong doctor at the right hospital." 9f both of these commentaries on the death of %''ara are aimed at a "ind of stylized shoc" effect# 4arhol's response is the one that trades on language and not the body; it distances itself sympathetically from the gruesome details and from the madding cro!d and even suggests a conventional form for )ivers's tone of address the 7op eulogy. And yet one cannot help but feel that it is nothing short of violence that reduces# in 4arhol's comment about )ivers# a horrid corporeal realism to formal elegance. 9t is nothing short of violence# ho!ever banal and anti apocalyptic# that reduces the busyness of everyday life to business as usual# to the ethic of "surface things" !hich 4arholian 7op came to consecrate under its rubric of maximum indifference 3verything is Bood. 9n !hat !ay# exactly# could a eulogy of 6surface things" have been appropriate for %''ara# !ho is increasingly remembered today as one of the poets of everyday lifeJ 9t's true that the painters in )ivers and %''ara's circle had been obsessed !ith "surface#" but this technical obsession !as underpinned by a !hole ideology of depth angst# alienation# and autonomy !hich mar"ed the tradition of moral seriousness that !as their heritage as artist intellectuals. 7op's egalitarian crusade !as to put to the s!ord the !hole apparatus of discrimination that had rested upon a hermeneutics of depth# interpretation and moral value. Ealue could be located in any and every ob:ect# and because everything mattered" nothing mattered very much more than anything else. 7op# in its purist# theoretical form# !as intended as an utter negation of the use of taste as a category of cultural po!er. 4hatever one could say about the friendliness of %''ara# in his poetry# to the surface detail of everyday life# it is as difficult to find evidence there of this 7op disavo!al of taste as it is to detect any sign of heroic 0ietzschean loneliness of the sort espoused by >ac"son 7olloc" and others. 9n fact# his poetry is very much the record of a man of taste" not in the bourgeois mode# of course# but in the sense in !hich it presents a discourse about a certain "ind of masculinity that ta"es a responsible interest in "surface things" at the cost of the more traditional male leaning to!ards "important" affairs# topics# :udgments# values# etc. $or %''ara's man of taste# everyday life things matter# not because they are a !ay of advertising !ealth or po!er# nor because everything matters e<ually# but because their value is lin"ed to ho! people use them to ma"e sense of their !orld. Taste# in this sense# is more li"e a survivalist guide than a cultural category through !hich class mar"ed po!er is defined and exercised. 0o doubt this notion of taste also contains the rudiments of the principle that came to be recognized by feminism as "the personal is the political." 9n this respect# then# surely there are good reasons for remembering %''ara through ":ust the surface things" he !rote about# and little danger in confusing this %''ara !ith his other reputation as a poet of trivia !ho shunned the social# artistic# and political <uestions of his day.

9f that is so# then there are also good reasons for rethin"ing the categories of surface and depth that have come to plague our debates about cultural politics in the t!o decades since %''ara died# or# more exactly# ever since 7op inaugurated the "ind of culture# "no!n today as postmodernist# !hich seems to ta"e itself at face value. A culture of surface is not simply a culture that declares its immunity to historical anxiety; it is also a culture that has become suspicious of 'istory !ith a capital '# moving !ith a!esome solemnity and depth through our lives# a culture !hich recognizes that history# for the most part# is also made out of particulars by people !hose everyday acts do not al!ays add up to the grand aggregates of canonical martyrdom that ma"e for rea' politics. 9n fact# it is a commonly held vie! that# !hen it comes to politics# cultural texts are 'east successful !hen they are long on militant fiber *and short on pleasure/; in other !ords# !hen they are at their mostarticulate or didactic# and !hen their explicit relation to the political is there for all to read# and to be deferred to or bro! beaten by. 9ndeed# most of the cultural texts !e encounter are protopolitical they express an imaginary relation to real conditions of oppression or resistance# a relation that is often difficult to read" not least because of its contradictions# but more generally because it is expressed in a symbolic form. Texts# in other !ords# spea" more than they say# even !hen they seem to be about "surface things." 4e have learnt to recognize this state of affairs as the !or" of ideology# often vie!ed by left critics in terms similar to the !or" of (atan. 1ut there are good reasons# 9 thin"# for preferring the term protopolitical to the term ideological. 7rotopolitical# for example# suggests submerged a&ti$ity" !hile ideological suggests unremitting passi$ity7 protopolitical suggests embryonic# or future forms# !hile ideological suggests the oppressive !eight of the past extending into the present. (o too# in loo"ing at texts that occur "else!here#" !hether in time or place# !e ought to be encouraged to loo" for the protopolitical in those things that &an be said# rather than in !hat cannot be said !hat is suppressed# in short# by the !or" of ideology. To illustrate generally !hat 9 mean# 9 have ta"en the example of one of %''ara's best "no!n poems# "The Day Lady Died." 9t !as !ritten in +,;@# a "ind of prepolitical age !hich is to say# an age that preexists the more explicit formation# in the sixties# of the "ind of political culture !hich most of us have come to live and breathe. 9t !as !ritten e'se here" in that prelapsarian period of innocence before the brea" up of consensus liberalism# before the conspiracy climate of all post 6ennedy ideology# before the sixties "changed everything" a period that has been celebrated# for over a decade no!# in that glut of yuppie nostalgia culture that stretches from %meri&an 8raffiti to 1irty 1an&in0. 9t !as !ritten by a poet# as 9 have suggested# !hose blithe disregard for politics is e<ually !ell "no!n# a disregard# for example# that caused a stir !hen# in +,..# a minor <uarrel bro"e out among certain literati over his refusal to sign a petition condemning ?.(. involvement in Eietnam. Agit prop# or anything li"e it# is the last thing !e !ould expect from $ran" %''ara in +,;,. And yet# this is a poem# recording one of his celebrated lunchtime !al"s# !hich *and those !ho "no! and love %''ara's "9 do this# 9 do that" poems !ill surely agree/# has radically transformed modern poetry's expectations of ho! it is licensed to represent everyday life. 9t is a poem# li"e the three minute roc" and roll classics of its day# !hich brashly articulates the fresh disposability of time and energy# lived at high speed# in the ne! pop continuum of a consumer culture8 L)oss <uotes four stanzasM 9t's the day after 1illie 'oliday's death# and America's consumer mar"ets have never been busier; ban" tellers are dispensing cash to spendthrift clients !ithout even consulting their balances. 1ohemian poets# as !e can see from the conspicuous consumption described here# are no longer immune to the contagious seductions of the commodity !orld. This is not 1audelaire's poet dandy flaneur lured to the mar"etplace to loo" but not to buy. 9n the space of a fe! bloc"s# %''ara's motivated# discriminating consumer poet has found an entire range of cultural goods to purchase from all over the !orld# from hamburgers to Ancient philosophy. )obert Eon 'allberg points out that all of art and history *most of it is not American/ is

available here# not through 3liotic tradition# but through the benefits of mass production and cheapness. The last stanza# ho!ever# suggests that there are some cultural experiences. that are literally priceless and that therefore lie beyond the realm of paperbac" discount shopping8 and 9 am s!eating a lot by no! and thin"ing of leaning on the :ohn door in the ; (7%T !hile she !hispered a song along the "eyboard to 2al 4aldron and everyone and 9 stopped breathing This memory of a "live" 1illie 'oliday moment# !ith its extreme effect on the motor functions of the body s!eating# constricted breathing contrasts !ith the somnolent# lo! "ey anxiety of "<uandariness#" !hich !as the physical effect of ma"ing the earlier consumer choices. (uch live moments cannot be reproduced on vinyl for mass consumption you had to be there. Although %''ara's poet seems to be perfectly at home in the modem environment of consumer culture# the poem in !hich he acts out his nostalgia struc" desire ends up paying its tribute to !hat !e might recognize as the modernist poem# !ith its o!n epiphanic moment to record the loss# in the past# even the very recent past# of a culture of authenticity evo"ed by Lady Day's "breath ta"ing" live presence. 9n a poem called ">itterbugs#" Amiri 1ara"a put the matter more succinctly8 "though yr mind is some!here else# your ass ain't." 1ara"a is addressing himself more to the contradictions of ghetto realism than to the romantic spirit of the !hite bohemian in ritual thrall to the spectacle of :azz performance. 1ut his tone here might serve as an earthy corrective to the rapt mood of %''ara's last stanza. 9n fact# if !e loo" bac" through the poem# beginning !ith the encounter in the first stanza !ith the probably blac" shoeshine boy# !ho may be !orried about ho! he is going to be fed in a !ay that is different from the poet's anxiety about his un"no!n hosts in 3asthampton# !e begin to see ho! the references to postcolonial "0egritude" Benet's Les N90res and those "poets in Bhana" have indirectly# perhaps even unconsciously# prepared the reader for the final confrontation !ith American "negritude." 1y +,;,# scenes of :azz idolatry on the part of !hite intellectuals had become a commonplace# if not a clichI# especially in the poetry !orld !here the 1eat cult of hipsterdom had become an ob:ect of national media attention. 4hat is stri"ing# ho!ever# is that %''ara is not li"e that; he is not that kind of poet. (ure# he fre<uented the :azz clubs# and even gave readings at the + (pot. There is enough personal testimony around# from friends and ac<uaintances# to establish that he !as <uite familiar !ith :azz music. 1ut !hen it comes to his poetry# :azz almost never figures in the taste milieu !ithin !hich he represented himself# or in the realm of cultural events about !hich he !rote in copious detail. True to his impeccably camp outloo"# =arnegie 'all and the 2etropolitan %pera 'ouse !ere more standard venues in his poetry than the ; (pot# )achmaninoff a more constant source of religious ecstasy than 2iles Davis. This scene in the ; (pot doesn't seem to properly be'on0 in %''ara's !or"# !here it is employed nonetheless to invo"e a spirit of authenticity. 9t appears to me as a fond reader of %''ara that this scenario might be read as an ironic# even parodic# gloss on the stereotyped 1eat devotee of the more "authentic" !orld of :azz culture. 1y +,;,# the image of the !hite intellectual !orshipping a blac" :azz performer had become a popular icon# the sub:ect of a thousand cartoons and comedy routines. >azz !as beginning to ac<uire the legitimacy of a high art form and !as therefore being annexed as a realm of minority and not popular taste. 1ut !hile intellectuals of the day !ere ritually cro!ding into small :azz clubs# the popular action !as else!here# ever since !hite high school "ids had begun to tune into blac" )N1 radio stations in the late forties and early fifties. 1y +,;,# the roc" and roll revolution !as over three years old# but you can comb through %''ara's entire oeuvre compendiously pac"ed !ith cultural details and never find any evidence that such a revolution had ta"en !hole regions and sectors of the culture by storm. The =ivil )ights 2ovement !as beginning to gain momentum. 1ut !hich !ould prove more crucial to the future

gains of multiculturalismJ The po!er of !hite liberal fantasies# centered upon the idolizing of the purity of blac" culture and its fine artsJ %r the prospect of fully integrated dance floors blac" and !hite bodies moving to recognizably blac" rhythms# and the other racial crossovers !hich roc" and roll culture has generated ever since its scandalous originJ $or !hite intellectuals# the sacred spectacle of the spontaneous :azz performer !as underscored# among other things# by a highly romantic form of racism. 9t suggested that !or" !as simply an extension of a "ind of presocial culture that !as at ease !ith play and had mastered leisure; in other !ords# ma"ing :azz !as !or" that didn't loo" li"e !or"# by people !ho !eren't supposed to "no! the difference. 9n %''ara's poem# !hat 1illie 'oliday does comes "naturally." 'er languorous "!hisper#" by contrast# precipitates an unnatural response# a near cardiovascular attac"# on the poet's part# !hich can be compared# diametrically# !ith the nonchalance that he had earlier displayed during his bout of compulsive buying. Then# !hat !as most self conscious about consuming had been made to seem li"e the most natural thing in the !orld. ">ust" strolling in here and there# and "casually" as"ing for this and that# at once indecisive and pragmatic in his purchasing# he had behaved almost li"e a practiced shoplifter# carefully covering his trac"s !ith a !hole range of consumer rituals. 1ut# for all of its !or"ed at insouciance# the art of consuming# unli"e the art of the :azz singer# proves to be hard !or"8 after a !hile# he's "s!eating a lot#" unli"e Lady Day# !ho is remembered as the very image of cool. 3ven no!# !hen she literally has stopped breathing# it is the poet !ho ta"es on her symptoms as he reads of her death in the ne!spaper. That it is a Lady Day and not a =harlie 7ar"er being commemorated in this !ay is# of course# %''ara's o!n personal touch. As a gay poet# and one of the most spontaneous of all camp !riters# it is no surprise to find that it is a !oman singer !ho shares the billing along !ith the goddesses of the screen !hom he celebrates in other poems. 9n fact# %''ara's most celebrated camp line occurs in a poem in !hich the poet sees a ne!spaper headline announcing that "LA0A T?)03) 'A( =%LLA7(3DK" 9t ends thus8 9 have been to lots of parties and acted perfectly disgraceful but 9 never actually collapsed oh Lana Turner !e love you get up (urvivalist exhortations of this sort lie at the very heart of camp's insistence that the sho! must go on# that irony and parody can redeem even the most tragic and sordid events# !hich color everyday life. The last years of >udy Barland's life# for example# in !hich she transformed her career role as a self destructive loser into that of a reliant# irrepressible fighter# came to exemplify this survivalist spirit for the gay community# and the final period of 1illie 'oliday's chec"ered life and career is certainly the closest e<uivalent among female :azz performers *"The Day Lady Died" ta"es place almost exactly a decade before the day that sa! both Barland's funeral and the (tone!all riots/. 9n the prepolitical climate of %''ara's day# this survivalism found expression in the highly ironized flamboyance of the camp ethic "laughing to "eep from crying" !hich structured a !hole subculture around the act of imagining a different relation to the existing !orld of too strictly authorized and legitimized sexual positions. 9n this respect# camp has to be seen as an imaginative con<uest of everyday conditions of oppression# !here more articulate expressions of resistance or empo!erment !ere impossible. The most elaborate of these imaginary codes involved identification !ith the "po!er#" ho!ever restricted# exercised by certain !omen# especially those in the cinema# and especially those li"e 1ette Davis# !hose mannered repertoire !as a highly performed caricature of the conventional representations of !omen. The suggestion that role playing# and the destabilizing of fixed sexual positions# could actually add to the exercise of sexual po!er !as a very attractive suggestion for the gay male# !ho "ne! that his sexuality"in everyday life# !as li"ely to get him into trouble.

The sometimes ma!"ish sentimentalism of camp is often seen as an institutionalized expression of self hatred# and thus a dangerous form of acceptance# by an oppressed group# of the oppressor's definition of the oppressed. Li"e the eponymous ">e!ish self hatred#" or "Tomming " in blac" culture# or certain expressions of "machismo" in Latin cultures# camp is a form of defense constructed by an oppressed group out of conditions not of its o!n ma"ing. That is !hy it is protopolitical; in other !ords# it is a response to politically induced oppression# but at the same time# it is a response that accepts its current inability to act in an explicit political manner to combat that oppression. This response ta"es many covert forms and baro<ue systems of disclosure# not least in the heavily coded speech repertoires and intonations of gay vernacular# !hich the attentive reader can find every!here in %''ara's poetry. Loo"ing bac" over %''ara's poem# !e can see ho! it tends to accept !hat might have been stereotypically regarded as the social contours of gay masculinity in +,;,# the obsession# for example# !ith trivia# !ith feelings# !ith discriminations of taste# and# of course# !ith the fine arts. The tone of the poem mar"s its obvious distance from the voice of legitimate masculinity; %''ara's is not the voice of the public sphere# !here real decisions are made by real men and !here real politics is supposed to ta"e place. 9n fact# the hectic itinerary follo!ed by his poet could :ust as !ell be that of a genteel lady about to!n# if you substitute a hairdresser for the shoeshine# the )ussian Tea )oom for the soda parlor# )izzoli's for the Bolden Briffin# and so on. This is a man on a shoppin0 trip" and the dizzy combination of <uandariness# fastidiousness# vagrant attention# distaste for ugly items# and the general air of practiced nonchalance that he displays in the process of ma"ing his various purchases all of this mirrors or mimics the !ay in !hich a !oman of means !ith a busy social schedule might have conducted herself as the fifties !ere dra!ing to a close. *9t is open to debate !hether# in fact# a !oman !ould deliberate for so long over the choice of gift for "7atsy#" !hile proving so confident in ma"ing such a straightfor!ard selection for "2i"e."/ The "lady's" version of this poem !ould have ended# of course# !ith the shoc" of reading the obituary# in the Times" of a fashionable musician or composer. 9n fact# the "day lady died" is an account of a lady's day# played out by a man through an imagined lunch hour that is the very opposite of the po!er lunches being eaten in restaurants in the same fe! bloc"s by the men !ho ma"e real history no <uandariness for themK They "no! !hat they li"e# and it's not Bauloises and it's not Benet# even although they may share the F8+, to 3asthampton# the same commuter train as %''ara's poet# !ho# incidentally# shares the same !or"ing hours as they do. 3ven !hile it accepts a stereotype of gay masculinity# itself based upon a sexist stereotype of female character traits and mannerisms# %''ara's poem begins to imagine a different relation to everyday life for men in general. The masculinity he imagines here has increasingly become more familiar# along !ith the steady erosion# since +,;,# of the sexual division of labor and the gradual softening of the contours of social masculinity to incorporate more attention to style# feeling# taste# desire# consumer creativity# and sexual toleration. 9t mar"s the beginning of a !hole chapter of sexual politics that !ill come to learn almost as much from the redefinition of masculinity articulated by gay males as from the struggle against everyday oppression mounted by feminists. %''ara's poetry re:ects the big# global <uestions of politics and economics# even the big "artistic" <uestions of aesthetics. 'is is certainly not a heroic poetics of self reliance or self ma"ing in the transcendent# 3mersonian tradition# nor does it ma"e a pragmatic religion out of individualism# in the American grain. 9nstead it subscribes to the micropolitics of personal detail# faithfully noting do!n dates# times# events# feelings# moods# fears# and so on# devoting a bri&o'eur's disciplined attention to details in the !orld and in the people around him. %''ara's is a code of personal politics# !hich says that at some level you have to ta"e responsibility for your o!n conduct in the everyday !orld and to!ard others; you can't rely on organized politics or unorganized religions to change that. 9t is a code that starts from !hat !e find lying# unplanned# around us# rather than from achieved utopias of the body and mind. 9n +,;,#

!ell before the coming riots of self liberation# this !as a mannered !ay of saying ta"e things into your o!n hands. 9t seems impossible to end !ithout recalling the elegiac note !ith !hich 9 began# for death is a very important part of "The Day Lady Died." 4ho can read this poem about 1illie 'oliday's death !ithout thin"ing of %''ara's o!n untimely death seven years laterJ 4ho can read it !ithout thin"ing of the deaths today# from A9D(# of thousands of young homosexual men# li"e %''ara# in a culture that is only beginning to recognize ho! public agendas !or" by reorganizing and redefining private responsibilities. 9t is in this context that %''ara's code of everyday responsibility begins to ta"e on a ne! "ind of sense# three decades later. 9t is in this context that the sur$i$a'ism of the camp sensibility# al!ays prepared to deal !ith an apocalypse of !orst possible outcomes# ta"es on ne! meanings# !hen danger is located today in the smallest things in our lives. 9t is in this context# perhaps# that the "surface things" in %''ara's poetry sho! their unhidden depths. %riginally appeared in Poeti&s :ourna'. =opyright C +,G, by Andre! )oss. )eprinted by permission. 2ar:orie 7erloff Andre! )oss's provocative essay on "The Day Lady Died" . . . argues# <uite rightly 9 thin"# that %''ara's fabled "culture of surface" is not !ithout its o!n political resonances# its implicit criti<ue of a consumerism# dependent upon the sharply defined gender roles of the fifties and the dilemma they posed for the gay man. 1ut )oss's case seems curiously overdetermined8 Loo"ing bac" over %''ara's poem !e can see ho! it tends to accept !hat might have been stereotypically regarded as the social contours of gay masculinity in +,;,# the obsession# for example# !ith trivia# !ith feelings# !ith discriminations of taste# and# of course# !ith the fine arts. The tone of the poem mar"s its obvious distance from the voice of legitimate masculinity; %''ara's is not the voice of the public sphere# !here real decisions are made by real men and !here real politics is supposed t ta"e place. 9n fact# the hectic itinerary follo!ed by his poet could :ust as !ell be that of a genteel lady about to!n# if yo substitute a hairdresser for the shoeshine# the )ussian Tea )oom for the soda parlor# )izzoli's for the Bolden Briffin# and so on. . . . 9n fact# "the 'day lady died' is an account of a lady's day# played out by a man through an imagined lunch hour that is the very opposite of the po!er lunches being eaten in restaurants in the same fe! bloc"s by the men !ho ma"e real history *(3 DGG G,/. The difficulty !ith this argument is that )oss has to posit a "voice of legitimate masculinity" against !hich %''ara's o!n homosexual one may be seen to position itself. 1ut !hose voice in +,;, *or# for that matter# at any other time/ !ould this beJ Did "straight" poets of the fifties say# )obert Lo!ell or )obert =reeley present themselves as "ma"ing real history" over their business "po!er lunches"J %r !eren't they also outsiders by their very status as lyric poetsJ The relation to !omen is even tric"ier. )oss's argument is that "the social contours of gay masculinity of +,;,#" !hich %''ara's poem supposedly embodies# allo! the poet no choice but to assume a feminine role8 "the hectic itinerary follo!ed by his poet could :ust as !ell be that of a genteel lady about to!n." %''ara's elegy . . . begins !ith the lines8 9t is +H8H@ in 0e! 5or" a $riday three days after 1astille day# yes

it is +,;, and 9 go get a shoeshine because 9 !ill get off the F8+, in 3asthampton at -8+; and then go straight to dinner and 9 don't "no! the people !ho !ill feed me "Benteel" lady shoppers are hardly li"ely to go out to the 9sland on a summer $riday afternoon !ithout "no!ing !ith !hom they are going to have dinner. "The people !ho !ill feed me#" moreover# is an odd !ay of referring to one's hosts8 !ho "no!s !hat unladyli"e things that "feeding" is to includeJ Again# the sense of immediacy and improvisation is underscored by the reference to getting a shoeshine. )oss's suggestion that !e need only substitute "hairdresser" for "shoeshine" for the day to reveal itself as a "lady's day#" curiously misses %''ara's nuance. Ladies' visits to the hairdresser are scheduled and regular part of the routine of putting oneself together# rather li"e brushing one's teeth and putting on ma"e up in the morning. 1ut one doesn't schedule a shoeshine or ma"e an appointment to have one8 one does it *or rather# a man does it/ on the spur of the moment so as to "loo" good#" to ma"e an immediate impression# especially !hen one doesn't "no! "the people !ho !ill feed me." And the further irony is that# !hat !ith the drin"ing and the partying that could be anticipated at 2i"e and 7atsy's# no one !ould notice $ran"'s shoeshine any!ay. 9t is merely a !ay of *literally/ putting one's best foot for!ard. %r consider the lines in the follo!ing stanza8 "9 go on to the ban" A and 2iss (till!agon *first name Linda 9 once heard/ A doesn't even loo" up my balance for once in my life." This seemingly casual and irrelevant reference# far from lin"ing the poet to genteel lady shoppers !ith their "busy social schedules#" has precisely the opposite effect. 4hat ban" teller !ould confront a 2adison Avenue matron by loo"ing up her balanceJ 4hat matron !ould give so much as a thought to the teller's nameJ The implication of the lines is that the poet is al!ays self conscious about being "different"8 polite and friendly as he is at the ban"# 2iss (till!agon evidently perceives him as :ust a bit <ueer# and besides he is evidently prone to overdra!ing on his account. The routine !ithdra!al of money thus becomes an incident !orth reporting. The name "(till!agon#" moreover# !ith its oxymoronic con:unction of !his"ey still and being on the !agon# anticipates the crisis of 1illie 'oliday's last days. 9t is charged language of this sort *a good bit of !hich 9 missed the first time 9 discussed the poem/ that ma"es %''ara's !or" so fascinating. As for "consumerism#" it should be noted that every item the poet buys *or contemplates buying/ is bought for someone e'se. 9ntense friendship# !hich is the gay poet's alternative to the family net!or"s that determine the largely routine purchases made by the typical 0e! 5or" lady shopper# depends upon the careful discrimination and choice of gifts8 $ran" "no!s 7atsy's taste for Eerlaine and that 2i"e especially li"es to drin" (trega. And # in the larger sense# it is the set of choices of the poem's ma"er that provides us !ith a catalogue of items# all of !hich *as 9 suggest in =hapter ;/# relate# li"e 2iss (till!agon# to 1illie 'oliday herself. 9n line +-# for example# the poet contemplates buying "1rendan 1ehan's ne! play or Le Ba'&on or Les N90res A of Benet." 1ehan# !ho dran" himself to death at a young age# anticipates Lady Day's death from a drug overdose# !hile the mise en scOne of Les N90res sets the stage for Lady Day's climactic appearance at the $ive (pot. As for Benet himself *and the characters in Le Ba'&on/# the motif introduced by the invocation of the gay# ex convict author is that of the artist punished for his or her deviance punished# in Lady Day's case# by premature death. To say that the poet's itinerary is conceived as the daily shopping round of a genteel lady thus glosses over precisely those images and phrases that ma"e "The Day Lady Died" the bitter s!eet# poignant elegy it is. "Totally abashed and smiling" *=7 F@./# fearful and funny# self possessed and yet profoundly vulnerable# the poet !ho ma"es his 2anhattan rounds on a $riday *!ith 1astille Day soon to comeK/# is the $ran" !ho !as given to referring to 0e! 5or" as "(odom on 'udson#" the $ran" !ho had !ritten in his 'arvard >ournal# "9 often !ish 9 had the strength to commit suicide# but on the other hand# if 9 had# 9 probably !ouldn't feel the need. BodK =an't you let us !in once in a !hileJ" *+@A+-AFG# 34 +@@/. 9f the sensibility

here is indeed "gay#" !e must remember that not all gay sensibility of the period Allen Binsberg is a case in point stri"es the note of comic pathos# of humor laced !ith tough common sense# and especially of complex verbal play# that is %''ara's legacy to poetry. from Frank OHara: % Poet %mon0 Painters. ? of =hicago 7# +,,-. %nline http8AA!ings.buffalo.eduAepcAauthorsAperloffAohara.html >ohn Lo!ney . . . %''ara's refusal to specify ho! a poem is significant or ma"es events significant transfers the act of attention to the reader. There is minimal subordination of seemingly insignificant elements to greater patterns of meaning in %''ara's "9 do this 9 do that" poems. 1ecause these poems are narrative# the se<uencing of events often overshado!s any pattern of symbolic meaning. Although such poems resemble !hat )oland 1arthes !ould call the classical "readerly" text in their apparently straightfor!ard narrative structure# they continually submit the narrated events to <uestions concerning their ideological significance# concurring !ith 1arthes's notion of structure in the "!riterly" text8 "L(Mtructure is not a design# a schema# a diagram8 everything signifies something." The t!o polar hypotheses describing %''ara's poetryPthe "!ill not to impute significance" and "everything signifies something"Pinform the process of "double coding" that compels readers to continually decide on !hat is significant !hile concurrently reflecting on the grounds for such decisions. (uch tension ma"es readers simultaneously attentive to significance in the seemingly insignificant and !ary about attributing significance at all# as closer examination of several representative "9 do this 9 do that poems" !ill sho!. The poem that best illustrates this tension of attention is "The Day Lady Died#" probably the poem most fre<uently cited for demonstrating %''ara's antipoetic stance. 1ecause this poem is an elegy# it is some!hat atypical of the more casual "9 do this 9 do that" poems. The occasion of the poem# the death of 1illie 'olliday# heightens the significance of the poem's details. 0evertheless# the relation of the details to the poem's generic form remains problematic. The ma:ority of critics agree that the details observed by the poem's spea"er are random# that there is little significance to the times# people# places# and events mentioned. These details are the poem' s "anti poetic !eight" or mere coincidences that contrast sharply !ith the seriousness of the occasion. )obert yon 'allberg's assessment that the poem's impact depends on its "inadvertent banal approach to an earnest genre" typifies this critical reaction. %n the other hand# critics such as =harles Altieri have argued that the details of the poem do contribute to the feeling of the elegy. (uch critics still maintain the contrast bet!een the discontinuity of the reported experiences and the poem's elegiac conclusion. Despite this disagreement about the poem&s details to its impact as an elegy# no one is !illing to read too much significance into the details; the sense that the poet seems to :ust coincidentally and randomly notice these details forecloses such con:ecture. "The Day Lady Died" epitomizes the tension bet!een first and second readings of %&'ara&s "9 do this 9 do that" poems. 3xcept for the cryptic title# a title !hose significance !ould be noticed only by those familiar !ith 1illie 'olliday# there is no indication that the poem is an elegy until the closing stanza. Li"e so many of %&'ara&s poems# "The Day Lady Died" narrates events in the present tense; the events occur concurrently !ith the utterance itself. This process of simultaneous composition is less stream of consciousness than consciousness of stream# the stream of urban streets reported in rapid succession. The rapidity of reporting# emphasized through paratactic syntax# constant en:ambment# and minimal punctuation# precludes attention to detail. 9t is only !ith the poem's apocalyptic closureP"everyone and 9 stopped breathing" *CP# DH;/Pclosure that unites the remembered event !ith the present# the performance of 'olliday&s song !ith the performance of the poem# that the narrated events become significant. 5et even !hen the poem has "stopped breathing#" the details do not fit into a readily apparent

design other than that of the spea"er's lunchtime !al" itself. The genre of the poem demands the reconstruction of design from its disparate details# but the details resist such reconstruction. To insist on a coherent design that unites the apparently random details is to ris" reading too much symbolism into a poem !hose tone is so casual; to avoid such a ris" means accepting the clichI of the spontaneous# unreflective poet. There are a number of references to time in "The Day Lady Died#" typical for the lunch poems %&'ara !rote !ith one eye on his !rist!atch but particularly significant for a poem about death. These references to time are hardly uniform# ho!ever; there is <uite a difference bet!een saying "9t is +H8H@ in 0e! 5or" a $riday" and saying "three days after 1astille Day" *CP# DH;/.The first reference situates the poem in a specific yet repeatable time frame# !hile the second calls attention to the poet's selection of a dramatic descriptive term. "1astille Day" gives the poem a sense of historical depth that contrasts !ith the matter of fact reporting of departure and arrival times of the Long 9sland trains the poet plans to ta"e that evening. The reference to 1astille Day hardly seems gratuitous# for many of the poem's succeeding historical and geographical references are to oppression# imprisonment# and revolution# issues intimately related to 1illie 'olliday's life. 4hen the poet buys "an ugly 034 4%)LD 4)9T90B to see !hat the poets A in Bhana are doing these days" *CP# DH;/# he refers to a country *formerly the Bold =oast/ that had gained independence in +,;-# only t!o years before the "day Lady died." The reference to Bhana# rather than to another African country# is especially relevant for 'olliday's African American genealogy# for the Bold =oast had been an important center for the slave trade. (imilarly# the boo"s the poet considers buying for "7atsy" are relevant for the final years of 'olliday's life# years in !hich she !as trailed by the $19. The boo"s mentioned# "1rendan 1ehan's ne! play or Le 1alcon or Les 0egres A of Benet" *CP# DH;/# concern oppression and rebellion# and the authors !ere not only noted rebels but had spent time in prison themselves8 1ehan !as t!ice imprisoned !hile a member of the 9)A# >ean Benet spent much of his life in :ails# and 7aul Eerlaine# !hose boo" the spea"er finally decides to buy# spent t!o years in a 1elgian prison after shooting his lover# Anhur )imbaud. As casual and coincidental as such references to authors and literary texts appear# the pattern of oppression and rebellion they convey casts a po!erful shado! over a life the poem elegizes but never explicitly describes. The other names the poet mentionsPnames of friends# familiar places# and consumer productsPbecome more resonant !ith their historicity !hen :uxtaposed to other historical periods# people# and places. The :uxtaposition of names and places the poet "no!s closely *"7atsy#" "2i"e#" "the B%LD30 B)9$$90#" the 7A)6 LA03 A Li<uor (tore#" the "Qiegfeld Theatre#" "the ; (7%T"/ !ith historical figures and foreign places personalizes the poem's historical references. The mention of those the poet hardly "no!s at all *"the people !ho !ill feed me#" "2iss (till!agon"/ along !ith the mention of international trade names *"(trega#" "Bauloises#" "7icayunes"/ conflates the impersonal and the international !ith the personal and the local. As the literary and artistic center of +,;@s American culture# 0e! 5or" offers unlimited choice# but only in exchange for the reified sub:ectivity of consumer capitalism. $inally# except for the reference to 1astille Day# all of the poem's references to "foreign" and "past" history *the poem as !ell as consumer capitalism problematize the meaning of foreign and past/ are references to texts. 'istory is al!ays represented# in this case brac"eted bet!een the covers of the :ournals and boo"s the poet bro!ses through at ne!sstands and in boo"stores. 3ven the first mention of the figure the poem celebrates appears in a "034 5%)6 7%(T !ith her face on it" *CP# DH;/. This emphasis on the textuality of history foregrounds the relation of this literary text# "The Day Lady Died#" to its immediate historical referent# the day "Lady" died. "The Day Lady Died" is concurrently a repeatable# ahistorical script and an unrepeatable historical transcript of events; the poem loses much of its resonance !ithout historical "no!ledge of the day it records. 9n accentuating historical difference# the transience of the local people# places# and events named# the poem also suggests patterns of historical repetition8 revolution in $rance and revolution in Bhana# persecution of artists in $rance and persecution of artists in America. 1y placing the death of 1illie

'olliday in the context of 1astille Day and official oppression of artists# %''ara subtly comments on the state of the "avant garde" artist in +,;@s America. All of the actions represented in "The Day Lady Died" are acts of selection# especially the consumer's selection of !hat to do and !hat to buy for specific social occasions. 2ost of these are automatic or socially constrained acts of selection# but beginning !ith the decision of the ban" teller# "2iss (till!agon#" to not "even loo" up my balance for once in her life" *CP# DH;/# the process of selection raises fundamental interpretive <uestions. The poet does not speculate on "2iss (till!agon's" reasons for her change of behavior# but by stressing the singularity of this occasion# he suggests his o!n act of reflection and encourages readers to consider the significance of the ban" scene to the rest of the poem# and even the semantic possibilities of "2iss (till!agon" and "my balance." The next act of selection initially seems to be as un problematic as the other purchases8 "and in the B%LD30 B)9$$90 A get a little Eerlaine A for 7atsy" *CP# DH;/. 'o!ever# this seemingly unreflective act is modified by the catalog of boo" titles the poet has already considered# a catalog that concludes !ith the stri"ing oxymoron8 "9 stic" !ith Eerlaine A after practically going to sleep !ith <uandariness" *CP# DH;/. "Ruandariness" implies a state of agitated or distressed a!areness# a state not normally associated !ith sleep. "Boing to sleep !ith <uandariness" suggests a !eariness !ith selection# in this case the consumer's !eariness !ith selecting a literary text to give to his friend# but a !eariness as !ell !ith selecting the appropriate literary references to elegize 'olliday. %n the other hand# "going to sleep" also suggests an erotic of "<uandariness#" as this !eariness is belied by the inventiveness of such a line as "going to sleep !ith <uandariness." The poem asserts that imaginative inventiveness can subvert imprisonment in tradition; li"e!ise art can momentarily release one from the imprisonment of self consciousness inherent in such anxiety of selection. The final act of selection in "The Day Lady Died" appears not to be a conscious choice at all; the photograph of "Lady Day" invo"es a memory of the artist's po!er to literally ta"e one's breath a!ay# and in doing so# to ma"e the scenario of the poem's closure more vivid# more lasting. 4hen the poem ends on this note# it not only closes the process of selection but heightens the significance of the poem's details as !ell. As the image of "Lady Day" con:ures the precise memory of "leaning on the :ohn door in the ; (7%T" *CP# DH;/# the conclusion of "The Day Lady Died" sharpens the images portrayed earlier. (uch lines as "and 9 don't "no! the people !ho !ill feed me" or "2iss (till!agon . . . doesn't even loo" up my balance" *CP# DH;/ become laden !ith possibly ominous significance !hen vie!ed through the lens of 1illie 'olliday's death# a lens colored by the <uestions of oppression# revolt# and imprisonment that inform the references to other artists in the poem. 9t is possible to go to "sleep !ith <uandariness" !ith the details of "The Day Lady Died" only by refusing to select ho! they are significant. (uch a reading ris"s falling into a state of historical amnesia that the poem insistently militates against. from The %meri&an %$ant,8arde Tradition: ;i''iam Car'os ;i''iams" Postmodern Poetry" and the Po'iti&s of Cu'tura' <emory. Le!isburg8 1uc"nell ?7# +,,-. =opyright C +,,- by Associated ?niversity 7resses. David Lehman %''ara had heard Lady Day sing the previous autumn at the $ive (pot =afe# !here Thelonious 2on" regularly played. 9t !as a 2onday night. 2onday !as 2on"'s night off# and on those nights# 2al 4aldron# !ho !as 1illie 'oliday's piano accompanist# played !ith a trio consisting of 3lvin >ones on drums# >ulian 0e!ell on bass# 7epper Adams on baritone sax. %thers.# too# :oined in; Larry )ivers# !hose first love !as :azz# sometimes got in the action !ith his tenor sax. 9t !as )ivers !ho persuaded the $ive (pot's o!ner to let him conduct some experimental sessions in poetry and :azzPpartly to spoof the ne! vogue of beat poetry and mournful saxophone sounds and partly to :oin in on the fun. %ne 2onday

6enneth 6och came and read from the 2anhattan telephone directory !hile )ivers played saxophone. After!ard 1illie 'oliday# !ho had !andered in to greet 4aldron# told 6och# "2an# your poems are !eird." 'oliday# !hose cabaret card had been revo"ed because of her heroin use# consented to brea" the la! for one song !hile 4aldron hit the "eys. (he sang in a hus"y !hisper. %''ara stood leaning against the bathroom door# listening. 'aving digested the ne!s of Lady Day's death# %''ara !ent up to his office and typed out a poem# folded it# and put it into his :ac"et poc"et. 4hen he and >oe Le(ueur arrived in 3ast 'ampton# 2i"e Boldberg met them in his olive drab 1ugatti# !hich he had bought the previous fall on his and 7atsy's honeymoon in 9taly. Boldberg had brought a Thermos of martinis along# and the friends passed it around as Boldberg drove them to 1riar 7atch )oad# !here 7atsy !as !aiting. 2i"e put on a 1illie 'oliday record. 7atsy brought out a tray of hors d'oeuvre# and the four of them sat on the screen porch# !here %''ara announced that he'd !ritten a poem that afternoon. This is !hat he read8 . . . "The Day Lady Died" is a classic instance of a poem chronicling its o!n coming into existencePyou can trace the poet's footsteps up to the moment !hen he sat at his type!riter recapitulating the hour he had :ust spent. 7art of the poem's charm lies in its mix of populist and elitist elements8 a hamburger and a malted and "a little Eerlaine#" a trip to the ban" to cash a chec"# the purchase of exotic cigarettes and li<ueurs. 'ere again# as in "7ersonal 7oem" and "2emorial Day +,;@#" the names mentioned in the poem are not merely gratuitous; from our distance !e can see :ust ho! much they tell us about the !orld in +,;,. 3ven the detail about the ban" tellerP"2iss (till!agon *first name Linda 9 once heard/ L!hoM A doesn't even loo" up my balance for once in her life"Phas an interest beyond the sass in the spea"er's voice; it helps evo"e a once commonplace situation remote from us today# used as !e have become to automatic teller machines and the universal American first name basis. As a map of literary allusion# the poem is eclectic and heterodox8 1rendan 1ehan and >ean Benet are given e<ual billing !ith 'esiod and 7aul Eerlaine. Then there is the reference to the >une +,;, issue of Ne ;or'd ;ritin0 featuring the "voices of Bhana." 9t !as the fifteenth and final issue of the eight year old magazine# !hich !as published in the form of a 2entor paperbac" by 0e! American Library. The issue contained a po!erfully enigmatic story by 1oris 7asterna" and an account by the $rench poet 'enri 2ichaux of his experiences !ith mescaline# and it is more than li"ely that %''ara pic"ed up the "ugly" paperbac" *the ad:ective is aptPthe cover is a graphic designer's nightmare/ to read these t!o items rather than the voices of Bhana. 1ut Africa# as %''ara put it in "7ersonism#" !as "on its !ay#" and surely there is a strong sense of negritude in "The Day Lady Died"8 it's there not only in the reference to the ne!ly independent Bhana# !hich !as celebrating its liberation from colonial status# but in the title of Benet's play *Les Ne0res/# in the sad demise of 1illie 'oliday# possibly even in the s"in color of the shoeshine man# though this is not speciied. 7erhaps 5usef 6omunya"aa is right# and the professed interest in "!hat the poets in Bhana are doing these days" is a prime example of %''ara's "exoticism" of blac"s. 7erhaps exoticism is the point8 =igarettes from $rance and 0e! %rleans# li<ueur from 9taly# poets and painters from all overPthe names in "The Day Lady Died" represent a !hole !ay of life that !ould have seemed exotically bohemian to %''ara's first readers. 9t !as the same exoticism that young Americans# blac" and !hite# responded to in bebop :azz. Amiri 1ara"a# !hen he !as still Le)oi >ones# understood that "the goatee# beret# and !indo!pane glasses !ere no accidents# "that they signaled "the beginning of the 0egro& s fluency !ith some of the canons of 4estern nonconformity# !hich !as an easy emotional analogy to the three hundred years of unintentional nonconformity his color constantly reaffirmed." "The Day Lady Died" !as an instant hit# though it provo"ed dismay from critics !ho !ondered !hether a poem that doesn't get around to mentioning the deceased until four lines from the end# and then in the most incidental !ay# could possibly be a sincere expression of grief. This reaction put the poem in the company of other great elegies. 2ilton's "Lycidas#" the greatest elegy in the language# suffered a similar fate8 There !ere readersPthe great (amuel >ohnson among themP!ho felt that the poem's pastoral

conventions !ere artificial# that the poem therefore lac"ed sincerity# and that it !as moreover unseemly of 2ilton to ac"no!ledge# as he does# that one of his motives in !riting this elegy for a dro!ned classmate !as the hope that he# in turn# !ould be similarly memorialized. As the detractors of "Lycidas" !ere !rong# so the critics of "The Day Lady Died " mis:udged the poet's conversational ease and seemingly self centered stance. "The Day Lady Died" is a moving elegy not in spite of the poem's preoccupation !ith the poet's self but because of it; the death of the great singer at age forty four occurs as an interruption# a shoc" that the reader is invited to share. The sharpness of the contrast bet!een the vitality of the living man# attending to the errands and tas"s of life# and the dead singer is li"e a last percussive note held in an expectant stillness. The poem's breathless ending virtually enacts the death of the "first lady of the blues" *as the Ne !ork Post put it/ !hose nic"name# "Lady Day#" is inverted in the poem's title# a gesture as !itty as it is poignant. To the charge that %''ara is too ironic to be sincere# 9 !ould borro! the distinction Lionel Trilling made bet!een sincerity and authenticity8 %''ara's suspicion of sincerity as a rhetorical mode is paradoxically !hat ma"es his !or" more authentic. A delicious irony about "The Day Lady Died" is that this most casual of utterances !ill# in becoming an anthology standard# someday re<uire a !hole battery of footnotes. 1ut that is another !ay of saying that the poem opens out to include much more of the universe of +,;, than many another seemingly more ambitious poem. 9ndeed# to borro! a hyperbole from %''ara's beloved 2aya"ovs"y# it could be said that if all that survived of +,;, !as "The Day Lady Died#" then historians a century hence could piece together the 0e! 5or" of that moment in the same !ay that archaeologists can reconstruct a !hole extinct species of dinosaur from a single fossil bone. from The Last %$ant,8arde: The <akin0 of the Ne !ork 4&hoo' of Poets. =opyright C +,,G by Doubleday# 9nc. 'azel (mith 9n 'The Day Lady Died' the cityplace is unobtrusively feminized !hen the poet goes on a shopping trip during his lunch hour8 it is# as Andre! )oss says# 'an account of a lady's day# played out by a man through an imagined lunch hour that is the very opposite of the po!er lunches being eaten . . . by the men !ho ma"e real history' *)oss +,,@# p. DG,/. $urthermore# the seemingly innocuous boo"s the poet bro!ses in the shops include plays by Benet *Les Ne0res involves a sophisticated non essentialist exploration of the relationship bet!een racial identity and s"in colour/; a play by 1rendan 1ehan; and a 0e! 4orld 4riting volume from Bhana. 4idening the scope of the poem beyond 0e! 5or" as text# these casually listed titles resonate as sexually transgressive and revolutionary counter sites. As such they foreshado! the capitulation to drugs and death of 'oliday# victim of exploitation by !hite *and blac"/ men. 1ut the nodes along the route of the poem open up racial difference by retaining the complexities of place and culture. The differences bet!een 'oliday# the poets in Bhana and the characters in the Benet play are not reduced to one African 'other'# though they are placed on multi layered planes !hich pro:ect into the same place. The climax of the poem *the memory of the reduction of the singer's voice to a !hisper/ involves another shift of location# this time to The $ive (pot# a :azz club in 0e! 5or" !hich temporarily becomes superimposed upon the immediate environment8 and 9 am s!eating a lot by no! and thin"ing of leaning on the :ohn door in the ; (7%T !hile she !hispered a song along the "eyboard to 2al 4aldron and everyone and 9 stopped breathing

from Hypers&apes in the Poetry of Frank O'Hara: 1ifferen&e=Homose>ua'ity=Topo0raphy. Liverpool ?7# H@@@. =opyright C H@@@ by 'azel (mith. 2ichael 2agee "The Day Lady Died" is one of the "9 do this 9 do that poems#" !here the notion that !ords do supplants the notion that !ords mean# and !here truth happens to one's !ords in the course of their reception and redirection. %''ara clearly !ants to celebrate 'oliday LSM but# contrary to most critical vie!s of the poem# he is !ell a!are of the hazards involved in his underta"ing# and the poem is designed so that it might avoid descending into either "traditional elegy" *1lasing L2utlu 6onu" 1lasing# Po'iti&s and Form in Postmodern Poetry: O'Hara" Bishop" %shbery" and <erri''. 0e! 5or"8 =ambridge ?7# +,,;.M ;@/ or clichId rendition of the "!hite intellectual !orshipping a blac" :azz performer *)oss LAndre! )oss# "The Death of Lady Day." Frank O'Hara: To Be True to a City. 3d. >im 3lledge. Ann Arbor8 ? of 2ichigan 7# +,,@. DG@ ,+.M DG;/. The title itself is one aspect of %''ara's strategy8 the elegiac# transcendent bearing of the syntax *"The Day Lady Died#" accentuating "Day" so as to remove it from the continuum of days# as in "The Day the 3arth (tood (till"/ is undercut by %''ara's play on 'oliday's nic"name# "Lady Day." A second possibility arises# that the title is a plain statement of fact8 "The Day Lady" *Lady Day# 1illie 'oliday/ died. 6eeping in mind that the poem is contemporaneous !ith %''ara's invention of 7ersonism# !e should recognize the importance of %''ara's !ordplay# the !ay he figures 'oliday's death as one in a series of everyday events. .... The first four stanzas of %''ara's poem are built on a series of plain# present tense# declarative statements8 "9 go ... 9 !al" ... 9 go ... 9 get ... 9 do thin" ... 9 stic" !ith ... 9 :ust stroll ... 9 go." The sense of rapid movement is enhanced by his use of specific times *+H8H@#F8+,# -8+;/# and the !hole passage is a model of !hat >ames called "reactive spontaneity" *Psy&ho'o0y L4illiam >ames# The Prin&ip'es of Psy&ho'o0y. ? $o's. +G,@. 0e! 5or"8 Dover# +,;@.M +8 F@H/. "9 don't "no! the people !ho !ill feed me#" %''ara insists# and each encounter is an entanglement in externality# a literal modification in his discursive self# the complexity of !hich is registered in his vernacular expressions. 'e buys "an ugly 034 4%)LD 4)9T90B to see !hat the poets A in Bhana are doing these days#" as if reading across boundaries of race and culture !ere as casual and egalitarian as "noc"ing on a neighbor's door or calling her on the telephone and in that !ay the antithesis of the romantic act of "discovery" *in !hich the operative <uestion is not "4hat are you doingJ" but "4ho are you# !hat do you representJ"/. Lastly# he turns around; in describing that turning# he reveals :ust ho! actively the social text is mediating the poetic text8 "then 9 go bac" !here 9 came from to .th Avenue." This is of course a :o"e on the racist <uestion# "4hy don't you go bac" !here you came fromJ" and %''ara's ans!er renders the <uestion absurd !here he came from isn't Africa or 2ississippi# 2assachusetts or =hina# 2exico or 9reland; it's ".th Avenue." >ust as "the only truth is face to face#" %''ara measures origins in bloc"s. The :o"e is a gesture in the direction of his vision of 0e! 5or" as a multi ethnic radical democracy. 0otice that !ith more than G@ percent of the poem gone# 'oliday hasn't even been mentioned. And yet !e can read %''ara's 7ersonism style games as prelude to the final stanza# or as a return to !here the games "came from." 9 have mentioned ho! 'oliday's performance at the $ive (pot and %''ara's nervousness over the :azz poetry events held there are relevant subtexts for the poem; but there is another generally neglected subtext for the poem that 9 believe needs to be reinstated8 namely# the music most associated !ith the $ive (pot itself# the music of the ne! :azz avant garde characterized# as 9 mentioned earlier# by "its heavy emphasis on individual freedom !ithin a collectively improvised context." That music# as 2ac"ey has argued# "proposed a model social order# an ideal# even utopic balance bet!een personal impulse and group

demands" *L0athanie 2ac"ey# 1is&repant /n0a0ement: 1issonan&e" Cross,Cu'tura'ity" and />perimenta' ;ritin0. 0e! 5or"8 =ambridge ?7# +,,D.M DF/. 9 noted earlier ho! %''ara's move to the "free# glamorous Eillage" coincided !ith Thelonious 2on"'s famous run !ith >ohn =oltrane at the $ive (pot. 2on"'s influence on the young :azz avant garde that congregated at the $ive (pot *=oltrane# Davis# =ecil Taylor# %rnette =oleman# and others/ !as profound LS.M 2oreover# 2on"'s influence extended beyond young :azz musicians to include young poets such as 1ara"a# (pellman# and =reeley. %''ara# 9 thin"# belongs in this mix8 the "inds of associations 2ac"ey ma"es bet!een =reeley and 1ara"a and 2on"# Taylor# and =oleman might :ust as valuably be made bet!een these musicians and %''ara LS.M And !hat !e have in the milieu of the $ive (pot is an instance !here artists involved in different mediums !ere consciously tampering !ith each other consciously transgressing the la! of genre in order to invent ne! forms of democratic symbolic action. 9nsofar as %''ara's "The Day Lady Died" represents activity in the $ive (pot# it is one of these ne! forms. .... 4hat is most interesting to me about the conclusion to "The Day Lady Died" is that it is a practical application of 7ersonism8 and 9 am s!eating a lot by no! and thin"ing of leaning on the :ohn door in the ; (7%T !hile she !hispered a song along the "eyboard to 2al 4aldron and everyone and 9 stopped breathing To !hom did 'oliday !hisper# and !ho stopped breathingJ The absence of punctuation is an impediment# precludes a definitive ans!er. Did she !hisper "to 2al 4aldron and everyone" or only to "2al 4aldron#" her fello! blac" :azz musician# and to no one elseJ And !hat of "9#" !hich# in such a chatty# vernacular poem# seems to !ant to be an indirect ob:ect despite the rules of grammarJ Then# if "everyone" and "9" are separate ob:ects# did 'oliday !hisper "to 2al 4aldron and everyone" or "to 2al 4aldron and everyone and 9" that is# has %''ara someho! been left out of the communicative loopJ 4hether %''ara heard and ho! he heard are only tentatively defined. 4hat !e have as evidence of his reception are a physiological response *"stopped breathing"/ and the !riting of a poem called "The Day Lady Died." 4hat !e do not have is anything !e might confidently call "understanding" or ""no!ing." The fact that !e cannot decide !hether the members of this collective are sub:ects or ob:ects has the uncanny effect of obscuring their position in space. 2uch is dependent on !hether 4aldron and %''ara can both be included in "everyone"Pthe only noun !hich# in true grammatical fashion# occupies the position of both sub:ect and ob:ect. And here is the genius of %''ara's invention8 4aldron and %''ara are irreconcilable sub:ects mediated by a collective "everyone" !hich creates the potential position bet!een sub:ect and ob:ect# though neither of them occupies it alone# and their inclusion is dependent on dispensing !ith the grammatical la!s that !ould separate them. LS.M To observe is to be overcome !ith# first# a sense of anesthesia *blurring to the point of blindness/ and# second# the need for a synesthetic leap of faith8 the "privileged eye" *"9"/ is supplanted by an unnamed actor !ho chooses verse *versatility/ over verity *verisimilitude/. $aced !ith the irresolvable tangle of sub:ects and ob:ects# the operative metaphor becomes not the eye but the "eyboard8 "she !hispered a'on0 the "eyboard." %''ara's choice of prepositions has the effect of emphasizing :ust ho! 'on0 the "eyboard is# to the exclusion of several common definitions of ""ey"8 "something that secures or controls entrance to a place"; "a systematic explanation of symbols." The multiplicity of interpretive possibilities implied by the "eyboard puts to rest these more confining definitions. 3ven the common musical definitionP"the relationship perceived bet!een all tones in a given unit of music and a single tone or "ey note"P!on't accommodate %''ara's verbal play. $or 'oliday does not sin0 in a "ey

but# rather# hispers a'on0 a "eyboard. 9n doing so she gestures outside the realm of 4estern musical notation. .... 2oreover# %''ara's poem erects a generational bridge !hen it introduces 2al 4aldron. 9t is clear enough that# as the final scene of "The Day Lady Died" ta"es place in the $ive (pot# one !ould have to at least loosely associate it !ith the aesthetic environment of that venue. 1ut the fact that 4aldron is one of the players should provo"e further scrutiny. Booch identifies 4aldron as "a blac" pianist !ho usually accompanied 'oliday" *DHG/# but this is misleading in its suggestion that 4aldron !ould have been identified by the $ive (pot community simply as 'oliday's pianist. 9n fact# 4aldron !as an important member of the :azz avant garde !ho figured prominently in groups led by =harles 2ingus and 3ric Dolphy among others# and !ho !as heavily influenced by 2on". LS.M The point is that by the time %''ara composed "The Day Lady Died#" 4aldron's significance as a player lay much more clearly !ith the :azz musicians being touted by 1ara"a than !ith 1illie 'oliday. LS.M %ur reading of the "!hisper along the "eyboard" should ta"e into account the fact that %''araPas an accomplished pianist familiar !ith 2on"# =ecil Taylor# and 4aldron and conversing !ith *and reading/ 1ara"a !as a!are of the imminent :azz experiments in liberating ""ey" from even its flexible meaning as defined in bop improvisation. from "Tribes of 0e! 5or"8 $ran" %''ara# Amiri 1ara"a# and the 7oetics of the $ive (pot#" Contemporary Literature FH no. F *4inter H@@+/8 .,F -H..