Frank O'Hara: Written in the Sand at Water Island and Remembered (Little Elegy for James Dean)

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James Byron Dean (8 February 1931-30 September 1955): studio publicity still, c. 1955

James Dean
actor
made in USA
eager to be everything
stopped short

Do we know what
excellence is? it's
all in this world
not to be executed

Julie Harris and James Dean in East of Eden: studio publicity still, 1955

Frank O'Hara: Written in the Sand at Water Island and Remembered, 9 October 1955, from Four Little Elegies in Collected Poems, 1971