Meditations in an Emergency is a book of poetry by American poet Frank O'Hara (1926â€"1966) first published by Grove Press in 1957. Its title poem was first printed in the November 1954 issue of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse.
Mentions in popular culture
The book and references to it are seen on several occasions in Season 2 of the AMC television drama Mad Men.
- In the season's first episode, "For Those Who Think Young," the book is read by an unknown character in a bar and later by the show's main character, Don Draper. At the conclusion of the episode, a passage from the fourth section of the poem "Mayakovsky" is read as Draper inscribes the book to a then-unknown recipient with the message "This made me think of you -D" and subsequently places the book in an envelope and drops it in the mailbox.
- In the season's 12th episode, "The Mountain King", Draper, visiting California on business, visits Anna Draper, and finds the book he sent on her bookshelfâ€"revealing that she was the previously unknown recipient.
- In Episode 13, "Meditations in an Emergency", is set at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis and takes its title directly from O'Hara's book.