O? Hara was very much into the art scene. He served as an associate curator for a period of time at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and was friends with several abstract expressionist painters, including Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline. He was also a member of the New York school of poets.

O? Hara?s work deals primarily with everyday subject matter which is evident in other works as well, such as ?Lunch Poems?. ?Why I Am Not a Painter? takes the creation of art and puts it into a casual, unpretentious, everyday setting. This casualness is first displayed in (ll 3-6) Well /For instance, Mike Goldberg/

He may also be poking fun at painters. (ll 17-18) But me? One day I am thinking of/ a color: orange. This line starts the most detailed portion of the poem. He spends no time explaining the construction of a painting while he offers much explanation to how he constructs a poem titled ?Oranges.? O? Hara thinks that painting comes more naturally than writing does, but he lacks the talent to produce art work such as Goldberg.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Mike Goldberg/, Oranges Sardines, SARDINES Hara, Painter Hara, Wheres SARDINES/, Hara Goldberg, Poems Painter, Kline York, Oranges Hara, Art York, reader art, art scene, poking fun,
Approximate Word count = 677
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)