Poetry Friday: Autobiographia Literaria

I heard Billy Collins read this poem on The Writer's Almanac while driving this morning, and reflected that it was practically perfect.

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When I was a child

I played by myself in a

corner of the schoolyard

all alone.

I hated dolls and I

hated games, animals were

not friendly and birds

flew away.

If anyone was looking

for me I hid behind a

tree and cried out "I am

an orphan."

And here I am, the

center of all beauty!

writing these poems!

Imagine!

-- Frank O'Hara, from The Selected Poems of Frank O'Hara. © Vintage Books