This poem was written by Robert Creeley in 1962. It is the story of someone who has wandered off track and ended up in a place for himself with all of his friends there. The title of the poem is interesting because "Oh No" makes the place seem like it is bad that they stumbled upon it, even though there is a nice chair for them and all of their friends are wearing smiling faces. At first glance it would appear that the narrator had stumbled into a paradise where he was among friends and could truly be himself and had finally found his purpose in life.The narrator insinuates that anyone has the ability to get there just by wandering far enough away, in this case leaving the people you care about behind and working towards your own ends. The place is not actually a physical place because anyone is able to reach it no matter where they physically are by wandering off the path of community and walking onto the path of self. It can be attained by anyone at anytime just by abandoning those who have been with you for all of your life and choosing to only work towards your personal advancement. This shows the narrator's inclination towards selfishness. He changes his goals and only makes plans with keeping himself in mind. The people who are there already who are described as "friends" are actually others who have given up on helping others and only strive towards fulfilling their own selfish desires. They welcome the narrator to come and sit among them and to accept his fate as one of them but the narrator doesn't want to. He realizes that the place is not the right one to go in life and only represents selfishness and stagnation. It is odd to think of the people there as selfish because they are so willing and seem almost happy to offer the narrator a seat among them. This is done with malicious intent though and would only serve to drag the narrator down to their level to live with the same torment they have for abandoning their friends and family. They only want to give him a seat so that there will be one more poor soul to be trapped with them for all eternity. The people who are there will never experience true love or friendship ever again in their life because they have given up on others and only exist to strive towards their own goals that they have set for themselves. Their wild abandonment of those who have cared for them or knew them will lead them down a path that will result in them being left alone forever and friendless. Anyone who can be fooled to leave the right path by the artificial smiles of fake friends and a nice chair deserves to be alone in the end. Friends, family, and those who care about you are more important than any personal, material, or financial advancements that you can make in the world.