I was excited by what my painter friends were doing, and they

Hear, O seekers of fellowship and art, the words of Kenneth Koch: “I was excited by what my painter friends were doing, and they seemed to be interested in our poetry too, and that was a wonderful little, fizzy sort of world.” In this remembrance, Koch opens for us a vision of an age where artists of many disciplines inspired one another, where the boundaries between image and word dissolved into a shared atmosphere of creativity. His phrase “fizzy world” captures the bubbling energy that arises when different arts meet and ferment together, creating something greater than any one alone.

The origin of this world lies in the New York School of poets and painters in the mid-twentieth century, when Koch, along with John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara, and others, mingled freely with painters such as Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Larry Rivers. It was a time of bold experimentation. The painters shattered tradition with abstraction and raw color; the poets mirrored this with spontaneity, wit, and daring departures from established form. Koch was “excited” not only by his own craft but by the brilliance he saw in the canvases around him, and he found joy in the fact that the painters, in turn, valued the liveliness of his poetry.

This is not new in history. Consider the story of the Renaissance in Florence, where poets, sculptors, painters, and musicians gathered under the patronage of the Medici. Michelangelo wrote sonnets, Leonardo played the lyre, and poets like Poliziano mingled with them, each craft fueling the other. That flowering was born not of isolation but of mutual inspiration. What Koch recalls in New York is the same phenomenon: a circle of creators who saw no strict boundary between brushstroke and verse, but a shared flame expressed in many forms.

The power of such worlds lies in their cross-pollination. A painter’s boldness with color can inspire a poet to dare new metaphors; a poet’s cadence can inspire a painter to think of rhythm in visual form. In Koch’s time, the energy of Abstract Expressionism, its wild freedom, seeped into his lines, while the quick, conversational wit of his verse encouraged painters to think of their art not only as image but as gesture, conversation, life itself. This mutual exchange made their circle a “wonderful little world,” fizzy with vitality, alive with possibility.

Yet Koch’s words carry a subtle truth: such worlds are often small, fragile, and fleeting. The circle of artists may feel like the whole universe in the moment, but it exists within limits—“little” worlds, vibrant but precarious. Still, their influence spreads far beyond their size. The intimacy of their gatherings, the excitement of their dialogues, became the seed of movements that reshaped culture. From such small “fizzy” beginnings come revolutions of the imagination.

The lesson for us is clear: seek out companions in creation, not only within your own craft but across many. If you are a writer, spend time with painters, musicians, dancers; if you are a painter, walk with poets and philosophers. Allow your art to breathe the air of other disciplines. For creativity thrives not in isolation but in communion. Just as Koch’s circle in New York ignited a movement, so too can your circle of companions—no matter how small—become a “fizzy world” that births something new.

In practice, let each seeker of beauty act thus: form circles of inspiration. Gather with friends not only to share your work but to witness theirs. Visit galleries, listen to live music, read poems aloud in the company of painters and sculptors. Let the exchange of energy shape you, as it did Koch and his peers. Even if your world feels little, trust in its fizz: what matters is not its size but its vitality.

Thus Koch’s teaching endures: the greatest art is born not only from solitary genius but from shared excitement, from circles where poetry and painting, sound and image, word and gesture, nourish one another. Build your own “wonderful little world,” however small, and let it fizz with the energy of friendship and creation. From such worlds, entire generations may yet be transformed.