Frank O'Hara: "A Pleasant Thought from Whitehead"

"Here I am at my desk. The

light is bright enough
to read by it is a warm
friendly day I am feeling
assertive. I slip a few
poems into the pelican’s
bill and he is off! out
the window into the blue!

The editor is delighted I
hear his clamor for more
but that is nothing. Ah!
reader! you open the page
my poems stare at you you
stare back, do you not? my
poems speak on the silver
of your eyes your eyes repeat
them to your lover’s this
very night. Over your naked
shoulder the improving stars
read my poems and flash
them onward to a friend.

The eyes the poems of the
world are changed! Pelican!
you will read them too!"