Larry says

I was reading Frank O'Hara and wanted to copy parts of 'Two Dreams Waking'.  Then I wondered about copy-write, and intellectual property rights.  The Larry in 'Larry says' is Larry Rivers.  So I went searching.
There's a Larry Rivers website devoted to his work.  A number of times as you scroll through the site it mentions copy-write restrictions 'nothing can be used without express permission', etc. 

Then I took out my copy of "What Did I do", Larry Rivers autobiography.  He talks a lot about Frank O'Hara and says they were good friends that just happened to have sex a number of times.  Rivers says he is not homosexual, and quotes Gore Vidal's line: that there aren't homosexuals just homosexual acts.  The quote is credited.  [Does that mean he has permission?]
He divorced his wife and raised his children with the help of his mother-in-law.  He's very open about his life and has a lot to say about other people's lives.  Gore Vidal and Edmund White do the same in their memoirs. Are there restrictions in the telling?  Should there be?


Frank O'Hara knew and worked with a great many poets and painters in 1950's New York.  One person that is mentioned is Edwin Denby.  At first I thought it was someone I used to work with but that was William Demby, who wrote "Beetlecreek".  Edwin Denby was a dance critic, poet, novelist and translator of the 'Tao'.  He and Rudy Burckhardt lived together on West 21 Street next door to William de Kooning who was a friend.  As far as I could see they didn't have threesomes.  Though Larry Rivers talks about foursomes that he had.  Edwin, Rudy and William didn't write their memoirs.  William developed Alzheimer's and Edwin and Rudy committed suicide. 

When he was married Larry Rivers used to live on Crescent Avenue in the Bronx.  Frank O'Hara lived on East 9th Street, then 791 Broadway.  For eleven years he, that is Frank, lived with Joe Le Sueur, [can't confirm that he was the nephew of Joan Crawford ... though others say he was] who wrote a book about it, [living with Frank not being a nephew].  The painters went to The Cedar Tavern and the poets ... I don't remember.
You may find it anomalous but I find where they lived and drank interesting.
Someday I'll write a treatise on "The Tribe".

My hair has moved, but from the top of my head
to my ears.
My eyes are green, but look half shut.

My cheeks round, like my head
but large.

My arms appropriate.
The legs, too.
But the feet are moving, shortening, shrinking.

I'm shrinking
While the roundness gets rounder.