Poetics, Disembodied

[fuhrel at ccrouter.ccsn.nevada.edu]

     My wife recorded a reading by Ginsberg (with an "e") and Gary Snyder 
     at Graham Pond on the U. of Florida campus.  Allen began by chanting 
     and accompanying himself on the harmonium.  Immediately the frogs and 
     even a few real 'gators chimed in and all were in amazing  harmony.  
     Naturally I cannot verify this because although I heard the tape 
     myself, one of my dear hippy peace and love friends stole it.
     
     Bob Fuhrel


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Poetics, Disembodied
Author:   David Casseres <casseres at apple.com> at SMTP-CCSN
Date:    4/7/97 12:28 PM


>Just a note to mark the passing of Allen Ginsburg, one of TRP's admitted 
>inspirations (along with Kerouac, et al.).
>A very Sixties moment--sitting in an auditorium at the feet of the Bard, 
>all hair and robe and sandals and beads, leading everyone in a chant
>to Siva on his harmonium.
> 
>The next time I saw him up close was at an academic lit. meeting where he 
>had a neatly trimmed beard, a three-piece suit and looked (but didn't 
>talk) like a professor of economics.
     
He changed all our lives.  Yesterday the newspaper quoted the lines about 
the angelheaded hipsters seeking "the starry dynamo in the machinery of 
night" in dark smoky apartments floating over the city, contemplating jazz 
(I sure wish I could actually quote it!) and I thought instantly of 
Pynchon, and of many other things -- Ginsburg sitting full lotus at the 
mike in front of the first Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park, chanting BOOM, 
BOOM, MAHADEV -- years earlier finding out about "Howl" during my freshman 
year in college, when the court freed it for publication, and sitting in 
my room reading it with my eyes bugging out -- finding my way from there 
to The Naked Lunch to Aeschylus to Shakespeare to Sometimes a Great Notion 
to V. to Moby-Dick, to Gravity's Rainbow, and back to Ginsburg, over the 
years.... 
     
and then, so suddenly, the voice on the car radio talking about the 
Beats, about Ginsburg, my wife suddenly asking Why does he keep talking 
about Allen Ginsburg in the past tense?
     
     
     
Cheers,
David