When Allen died in 1997 a local record store in Indianapolis held a memorial and people were invited to speak. I wrote a poem about my encounter with Allen and read it. I later lost the poem and the cassette that had my reading on it. Just today in a file I found a copy of the poem. I found I still like it and want to share it.
Memories of Allen Ginsberg
Words
brushed from
the thick black beard
tumble
like
crumbs
onto the tablecloth of
20th Century literature
Words
sung in the flat
off key
nasal
New York Jew voice
in the time
after Bob Dylan
Words
chanted
in Sanskrit
to the sound of finger cymbals
in the flat nasal voice of the
New York Jew Buddha
It is April 22nd 1970
& I am standing in the light rain
& I am wearing my thrift store coat
& I am on Belmont Plateau
in Fairmount Park
in North Philadelphia
on a weekday afternoon
by the hippie girl with yellow hair in the
thin transparent white dress
who dances
bare feet on wet grass
to Redbone
and Seatrain
& Edmund Muskie
who wants to be president
has come to talk about the earth
on the first "Earth Day"
here
at the end of the sixties
on Belmont Plateau
in Philadelphia
I am 16
I have cut Catholic school
I took the B bus to Bridge Street
and rode the El
past factories
by warehouses
past the large brimmed hat of William Penn
past the Cathedral
past Rodin's Gates of Hell
past boat house row on East River Drive
past the dark streets that border the ghetto
past the Electric Factory
past Rittenhouse Square
in my thrift store coat
in the light rain
on the wet grass
by the makeshift stage
where
the reincarnation of Walt Whitman
the bridge between Kerouac, Cassady & Bourroughs
& The Beatles, Dylan & LSD
in long white robe
& long black hair
& long strands of prayer beads
& small brass finger cymbals
by the microphone
on the small stage
in the light rain
at the end of the sixties
on Belmont Plateau
in Philadelphia
on April 22nd
& we chant
om hani padme om
om hani padme om
om hani padme om
& we chant
Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
5/20/97
