Mike Goldberg
Mike Goldberg is a painter, and the friend of the poet from "Why I Am Not a Painter." He like the narrator lets things that are no longer there influence his painting, showing the similarities between the processes of writing and painting.
The Poet
The poet is the narrator of "Why I Am Not a Painter." He claims he would rather be a painter than a poet and looks to his friend Mike Goldberg as an example of this. When he writes poems about the color orange, he does so without actually ever using the name of the color.
Lana Turner
Lana Turner has a career of about fifty years as an American film, television, stage, and radio actress. She was also a pinup model.
The Narrator
The narrator, presumably the voice of O'Hara himself, is present in many of his poems. In some of them the narrator addresses a more general audience, while in others he speaks to a specific person.
