Walking Into Schuyler’s Ocean

A Day Like Any Other: The Life of James Schuyler by Nathan Kernan (FSG, 2025)

This excellent new biography of the American poet James Schuyler, A Day Like Any Other by Nathan Kernan, offers a superb introduction to the world of the New York School of Poets and how life was experienced during those decades, especially in the 1950s and 1960s. Schuyler’s essence is simple, but the more you let the poem resonate with you, the more powerful it becomes. It’s like walking into the ocean, stopping where the water reaches your knees, and feeling the waves hit you. The water gets stronger, and there’s an aftereffect—you realize the force of the currents slamming into you.

I’m struck by how vibrant the poetry community was in those days, and I suspect it still exists in certain circles. Schuyler did not have an easy life, in part because of his manic-depressive states and the almost violent acts of mania when they occurred. Yet the poets around him did their best to keep him safe. That environment remains sophisticated in the eyes of those who created and lived in it. Frank O’Hara, Barbara Guest, John Ashbery, and Kenneth Koch are all key figures in Schuyler’s story. It’s impressive that there was no official “New York School of Poetry,” but there was a deep and lasting friendship among them, which always surfaced when the pressure was high.

There was sadness in Schuyler’s life, but readers will also be impressed by the strong sense of community in his gay-oriented world, which feels very much like a family. His poetry reflects that world, and that’s one reason I love his work so much. He also participated in one of my favorite albums, writing the words to Paul Bowles’ A Picnic Cantata, performed by the piano duo Gold and Fizdale. This circle of poets also had a great love for modern classical music and were avid record collectors. What’s not to like?

A few years back, I did a Tosh Talk segment on James Schuyler. I read some of his poems and talked about his work. It is here: