Frank O’Hara is Carroll’s number one literary influence and favorite poet, although they never met. References to O’Hara in Carroll’s work include:
- Organic Trains
- Includes lines from O’Hara in its dedication
- “2nd Train” is dedicated to O’Hara.
- Catholic Boy
- “Nothing Is True” alludes to O’Hara’s lines in “starts out like a kiss,
- and ends like a curse.”
- The Book of Nods
- “Poem for Frank O’Hara
- Void of Course & Pools of Mercury
- “8 Fragments for Kurt Cobain” alludes to O’Hara’s lines in “starts out as a kiss / And follows like a curse.”
On the movie Poetry in Motion 2, Carroll talks about O’Hara: