Frank O’Hara “Ave Maria”

I love the irony of the title and the underlying message of this poem. There is a focus on the sexual, the pornographic and the freedom to use religion. The poignancy is found in the pull between the mother letting go, letting her children experience life but letting them go to a world that me be too adult and sinful. Again, there lies sin in the words under “Ave Maria” and being taken to an apartment building “Heaven on Earth” for an “experience”, all with the pull between the sexual and the religious. Wisdom I found to lie in the balance between love and sex, not sex and religion. Sex without love is meaningless; sex is more important under love. However, even with love, religion does not see the beauty in sex. It sees it as sin, something to be done only in marriage and for purposes other then pleasure. (I therefore see no reason for religion).