Here's how it opens:
America I've given you all and now I'm nothing.
America two dollars and twenty-seven cents January 17, 1956.
I can't stand my own mind.
America when will we end the human war?
Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb
I don't feel good don't bother me.
I won't write my poem till I'm in my right mind.
I've got the full text via the link above. Anyway, that text got me thinking about an earlier era and another odd poet, e.e. cummings, who has a poem entitled "next to of course god america i." It's short enough to reproduce in full:
"next to of course god america i
love you land of the pilgrims' and so forth oh
say can you see by the dawn's early my
country tis of centuries come and go
and are no more what of it we should worry
in every language even deafanddumb
thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
by jingo by gee by gosh by gum
why talk of beauty what could be more beaut-
iful than these heroic happy dead
who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter
they did not stop to think they died instead
then shall the voice of liberty be mute?"
He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water
A brilliant satire of Nationalist demagogues wrapping themselves in empty patriotism, kinda like freepers only more articulate. If you listen to cummings read this work, you'll hear him modify his usual speaking tone to carry the mockery further. A World War One veteran, cummings didn't have much time for stuffed shirts.
If cummings and Ginsberg were alive, I bet they'd be down on the Mall this weekend.
5 comments:
I once met Ginsburg. Except I didn't know it was Ginsburg, and we didn't really meet. I was in Harvard Square and saw a short older man struggling to get a huge suitcase up some stairs from a bar. Having been a girl scout, I stopped to help him heave the luggage up onto the sidewalk and hailed him a cab. He gave me a quizzical look, thanking me as he got in the taxi. Later I saw posters around saying Ginsburg was doing a reading at the place I'd seen the man come out of, and sure enough, there he was in the photo. I realized that the puzzled look was because he didn't know if I was helping him because he was Ginsburg or just and old guy struggling with a suitcase.
I also once, not paying attention in a bookstore, nearly knocked Andy Warhol down. (Not a poetry name-drop, but a 60's idol name-drop nonetheless.)
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by blogs, starving, hysterical, naked
dragging themselves through the naked streets at dawn, looking for a wireless connection
angelheaded hipsters burning for the heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the service providers of the night
Le hip heh. Love your blog. I just discovered it tonight after you left a comment on mine. I dig your work, Daddy-O. Rave on.
Beautiful parody, cube. And cupcakegrrl I thought you had given up the ghost. My brother-in-law has a Ginsberg story as well. He used to live in NYC and he was at some bar/restaurant and Ginsberg, who was a few years from death at the time, tried to come onto him. My brother in law didn't know who the guy was, and being about 25 years old, was not interested in the guy. Later on he was told who the guy was.
Now, would knowing that it was Ginsberg have swayed the outcome? That's the key point for this inquiring mind...
Yes, I had rather given up the ghost. But rumors of war brought me back from beyond the grave. Rather like Lincoln's ghost in the Blue Room at 1600 Penn Ave, I should think...Had to check it out.
Is it just me being optimistic, or do you too see hope for the world in the lack of dissention over who was being a jerk? If only the Democrats could produce a candidate like Kathryn: unarguably straightforward, smart, and reasonable, to unify the ranks.
I suppose de-bugging the voting machines would be a step in the right direction, too.
And just to keep on point, I have to suggest that Ginsberg would agree...
I agree. However, whether that spells hope for the Democrats, I don't know. They have bigger problems than blog wars. I was a Kucinich backer in 2004...oh well.
As for Ginsberg, it wouldn't have mattered if he'd known. It only made it more interesting...
Post a Comment