Collected Poems 1947-1997

by Ginsberg, Allen

• ISBN13: 9780061139741
• ISBN10: 0061139742
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-09-27
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

Here, for the first time, is a volume that gathers the published verse of Allen Ginsberg in its entirety, a half century of brilliant work from one of America's great poets. The chief figure among the Beats, Ginsberg changed the course of American poetry, liberating it from closed academic forms with the creation of open, vocal, spontaneous, and energetic postmodern verse in the tradition of Walt Whitman, Guillaume Apollinaire, Hart Crane, Ezra Pound, and William Carlos Williams. Ginsberg's classics Howl, Reality Sandwiches, Kaddish, Planet News, and The Fall of America led American (and international) poetry toward uncensored vernacular, explicit candor, the ecstatic, the rhapsodic, and the sincere-;all leavened by an attractive and pervasive streak of common sense. Ginsberg's raw tones and attitudes of spiritual liberation also helped catalyze a psychological revolution that has become a permanent part of our cultural heritage, profoundly influencing not only poetry and popular song and speech, but also our view of the world. The uninterrupted energy of Ginsberg's remarkable career is clearly revealed in this collection. Seen in order of composition, the poems reflect on one another; they are not only works but also a work. Included here are all the poems from the earlier volume Collected Poems 1947-1980, and from Ginsberg's subsequent and final three books of new poetry: White Shroud, Cosmopolitan Greetings, and Death & Fame. Enriching this book are illustrations by Ginsberg's artist friends; unusual and illuminating notes to the poems, inimitably prepared by the poet himself; extensive indexes; as well as prefaces and various other materials that accompanied the original publications.

Table of Contents

COLLECTED POEMS 1947-1980
Author's Preface, Reader's Manual	5	(6)
I. EMPTY MIRROR: GATES OF WRATH (1947-1952)
In Society	11	(1)
The Bricklayer's Lunch Hour	12	(1)
Two Sonnets	13	(1)
On Reading William Blake's "The Sick Rose"	14	(1)
The Eye Altering Alters All	15	(1)
A Very Dove	15	(1)
Vision 1948	16	(1)
Do We Understand Each Other?	17	(1)
The Voice of Rock	18	(1)
Refrain	19	(2)
A Western Ballad	21	(1)
The Trembling of the Veil	22	(1)
A Meaningless Institution	23	(1)
A Mad Gleam	24	(1)
Complaint of the Skeleton to Time	25	(1)
Psalm I	26	(1)
An Eastern Ballad	26	(1)
Sweet Levinsky	27	(1)
Psalm II	28	(3)
Fie My Fum	31	(1)
Pull My Daisy	32	(2)
The Shrouded Stranger	34	(1)
Stanzas: Written at Night in Radio City	35	(2)
After All, What Else Is There to Say?	37	(1)
Sometime Jailhouse Blues	38	(1)
Please Open the Window and Let Me In	39	(1)
"Tonite all is well"	40	(1)
Fyodor	40	(1)
Epigram on a Painting of Golgotha	41	(1)
"I attempted to concentrate"	41	(1)
Metaphysics	41	(1)
In Death, Cannot Reach What Is Most Near	42	(1)
This Is About Death	43	(1)
Hymn	44	(1)
Sunset	45	(1)
Ode to the Setting Sun	46	(2)
Paterson	48	(2)
Bop Lyrics	50	(2)
A Dream	52	(2)
Long Live the Spiderweb	54	(1)
The Shrouded Stranger	55	(2)
An Imaginary Rose in a Book	57	(1)
Crash	57	(1)
The Terms in Which I Think of Reality	58	(2)
The Night-Apple	60	(1)
Cezanne's Ports	61	(1)
The Blue Angel	62	(1)
Two Boys Went Into a Dream Diner	63	(1)
A Desolation	64	(1)
In Memoriam: William Cannastra, 1922-1950	65	(2)
Ode: My 24th Year	67	(1)
How Come He Got Canned at the Ribbon Factory	68	(1)
The Archetype Poem	69	(2)
A Typical Affair	71	(1)
A Poem on America	72	(1)
After Dead Souls	73	(1)
Marijuana Notation	74	(1)
Gregory Corso's Story	75	(1)
I Have Increased Power	76	(2)
Walking home at night	78	(1)
"I learned a world from each"	78	(1)
"I made love to myself"	78	(1)
A Ghost May Come	79	(1)
"I feel as if I am at a dead end"	79	(1)
An Atypical Affair	80	(1)
345 W. 15th St.	81	(2)
A Crazy Spiritual	83	(3)
Wild Orphan	86	(5)
II. THE GREEN AUTOMOBILE (1953-1954)
The Green Automobile	91	(5)
An Asphodel	96	(1)
My Alba	97	(1)
Sakyamuni Coming Out from the Mountain	98	(2)
Havana 1953	100	(3)
Green Valentine Blues	103	(2)
Siesta in Xbalba	105	(14)
Song ("The weight of the world")	119	(2)
In back of the real	121	(1)
On Burroughs' Work	122	(1)
Love Poem on Theme by Whitman	123	(1)
Over Kansas	124	(7)
III. HOWL, BEFORE & AFTER: SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA (1955-1956)
Malest Cornifici Tuo Catullo	131	(1)
Dream Record: June 8, 1955	132	(1)
"Blessed be the Muses"	133	(1)
Howl	134	(8)
Footnote to Howl	142	(1)
A Strange New Cottage in Berkeley	143	(1)
A Supermarket in California	144	(1)
Four Haiku	145	(1)
Sunflower Sutra	146	(2)
Transcription of Organ Music	148	(2)
Sather Gate Illumination	150	(4)
America	154	(3)
Fragment 1956	157	(1)
Afternoon Seattle	158	(1)
Tears	159	(1)
Scribble	160	(1)
In the Baggage Room at Greyhound	161	(2)
Psalm III	163	(1)
Many Loves	164	(3)
Ready to Roll	167	(4)
IV. REALITY SANDWICHES: EUROPE! EUROPE! (1957-1959)
POEM Rocket	171	(2)
Squeal	173	(1)
Wrote This Last Night	174	(1)
Death to Van Gogh's Ear!	175	(4)
Europe! Europe!	179	(3)
The Lion for Real	182	(2)
The Names	184	(4)
At Apollinaire's Grave	188	(3)
Message	191	(1)
To Lindsay	191	(1)
To Aunt Rose	192	(2)
American Change	194	(2)
'Back on Times Square, Dreaming of Times Square'	196	(1)
Laughing Gas	197	(11)
Funny Death	208	(1)
My Sad Self	209	(2)
Ignu	211	(3)
Battleship Newsreel	214	(3)
V. KADDISH AND RELATED POEMS (1959-1960)
Kaddish: Proem, Narrative, Hymmnn, Lament, Litany and Fugue	217	(19)
Mescaline	236	(3)
Lysergic Acid	239	(4)
I Beg You Come Back & Be Cheerful	243	(3)
Psalm IV	246	(1)
To an Old Poet in Peru	247	(3)
Aether	250	(13)
Magic Psalm	263	(2)
The Reply	265	(2)
The End	267	(1)
Man's glory	268	(1)
Fragment: The Names II	269	(4)
VI. PLANET NEWS: TO EUROPE AND ASIA (1961-1963)
Who Will Take Over the Universe	273	(2)
Journal Night Thoughts	275	(5)
Television Was a Baby Crawling Toward That Deathchamber	280	(12)
This Form of Life Needs Sex	292	(3)
Sunset S.S. Azemour	295	(1)
Seabattle of Salamis Took Place off Perama	296	(1)
Galilee Shore	297	(1)
Stotras to Kali Destroyer of Illusions	298	(3)
To P.O.	301	(1)
Heat	302	(1)
Describe: The Rain on Dasaswamedh Ghat	303	(2)
Death News	305	(1)
Vulture Peak: Gridhakuta Hill	306	(2)
Patna—Benares Express	308	(1)
Last Night in Calcutta	309	(2)
Understand That This Is a Dream	311	(3)
Angkor Wat	314	(18)
The Change: Kyoto—Tokyo Express	332	(9)
VII. KING OF MAY: AMERICA TO EUROPE (1963-1965)
Nov. 23, 1963: Alone	341	(2)
Why Is God Love, Jack?	343	(2)
Morning	345	(2)
Waking in New York	347	(4)
After Yeats	351	(1)
I Am a Victim of Telephone	352	(1)
Today	353	(3)
Message II	356	(1)
Big Beat	357	(1)
Café in Warsaw	358	(2)
The Moments Return	360	(1)
Kral Majales	361	(3)
Guru	364	(1)
Drowse Murmurs	365	(2)
Who Be Kind To	367	(4)
Studying the Signs	371	(2)
Portland Coliseum	373	(4)
VIII. THE FALL OF AMERICA (1965-1971)
Thru the Vortex West Coast to East (1965-1966) Beginning of a Poem of These States	377	(58)
Carmel Valley	381	(1)
First Party at Ken Kesey's with Hell's Angels	382	(1)
Continuation of a Long Poem of These States	383	(1)
These States: into L.A.	384	(4)
A Methedrine Vision in Hollywood	388	(2)
Hiway Poesy: L.A.—Albuquerque—Texas—Wichita	390	(11)
Chances "R"	401	(1)
Wichita Vortex Sutra	402	(18)
Auto Poesy: On the Lam from Bloomington	420	(1)
Kansas City to Saint Louis	421	(6)
Bayonne Entering NYC	427	(4)
Growing Old Again	431	(1)
Uptown	432	(1)
The Old Village Before I Die	433	(1)
Consulting I Ching Smoking Pot Listening to the Fugs Sing Blake	434	(1)
Zigzag Back Thru These States (1966-1967)
Wings Lifted over the Black Pit	435	(2)
Cleveland, the Flats	437	(2)
To the Body	439	(1)
Iron Horse	440	(25)
City Midnight Junk Strains	465	(3)
A Vow	468	(1)
Autumn Gold: New England Fall	469	(5)
Done, Finished with the Biggest Cock	474	(1)
Holy Ghost on the Nod over the Body of Bliss	475	(1)
Bayonne Turnpike to Tuscarora	476	(5)
An Open Window on Chicago	481	(3)
Returning North of Vortex	484	(7)
Wales Visitation 488 Pentagon Exorcism	491	(1)
Elegy Che Guevara	492	(2)
War Profit Litany	494	(1)
Elegies for Neal Cassady (1968)
Elegy for Neal Cassady	495	(3)
Chicago to Salt Lake by Air	498	(3)
Kiss Ass	501	(1)
Manhattan Thirties Flash	501	(1)
Please Master	502	(2)
A Prophecy	504	(1)
Bixby Canyon	505	(2)
Crossing Nation	507	(2)
Smoke Rolling Down Street	509	(1)
Pertussin	509	(1)
Swirls of black dust on Avenue D	510	(1)
Violence	511	(1)
Past Silver Durango Over Mexic Sierra-Wrinkles	512	(1)
On Neal's Ashes	513	(1)
Going to Chicago	514	(1)
Grant Park: August 28, 1968	515	(1)
Car Crash	516	(3)
Ecologues of These States (1969-1971)
Over Denver Again	519	(1)
Imaginary Universes	520	(1)
Rising over night-blackened Detroit Streets	521	(1)
To Poe: Over the Planet, Air Albany–Baltimore	522	(2)
Easter Sunday	524	(1)
Falling Asleep in America	525	(1)
Northwest Passage	526	(4)
Sonora Desert-Edge	530	(2)
Reflections in Sleepy Eye	532	(2)
Independence Day	534	(1)
In a Moonlit Hermit's Cabin	535	(2)
Rain-wet asphalt heat, garbage curbed cans overflowing	537	(1)
Death on All Fronts	538	(1)
Memory Gardens	539	(3)
Flash Back	542	(1)
Graffiti 12th Cubicle Men's Room Syracuse Airport	543	(1)
After Thoughts	544	(1)
G.S. Reading Poesy at Princeton	545	(1)
Friday the Thirteenth	546	(3)
Anti–Vietnam War Peace Mobilization	549	(1)
Ecologue	550	(11)
Guru Om	561	(2)
"Have You Seen This Movie?"	563	(2)
Milarepa Taste	565	(1)
Over Laramie	566	(1)
Bixby Canyon to Jessore Road (1971)
Bixby Canyon Ocean Path Word Breeze	567	(9)
Hum Bom!	576	(3)
September on Jessore Road	579	(8)
IX. MIND BREATHS ALL OVER THE PLACE (1972-1977)
Sad Dust Glories (1972-1974)
Ayers Rock/Uluru Song	587	(1)
Voznesensky's "Silent Tingling"	588	(2)
These States: to Miami Presidential Convention	590	(5)
Xmas Gift	595	(2)
Thoughts Sitting Breathing	597	(3)
"What would you do if you lost it?"	600	(3)
Who	603	(1)
Yes and It's Hopeless	604	(2)
Under the world there's a lot of ass, a lot of cunt	606	(1)
Returning to the Country for a Brief Visit	607	(2)
Night Gleam	609	(1)
What I'd Like to Do	610	(1)
On Illness	611	(2)
News Bulletin	613	(2)
On Neruda's Death	615	(2)
Mind Breaths	617	(3)
Flying Elegy	620	(1)
Teton Village	620	(1)
Sweet Boy, Gimme Yr Ass	621	(1)
Jaweh and Allah Battle	622	(3)
Manifesto	625	(1)
Sad Dust Glories	626	(5)
Ego Confessions (1974-1977)
Ego Confession	631	(2)
Mugging	633	(3)
Who Runs America?	636	(1)
Thoughts on a Breath	637	(3)
We Rise on Sun Beams and Fall in the Night	640	(1)
Written on Hotel Napkin: Chicago Futures	641	(1)
Hospital Window	642	(1)
Hadda Be Playing on the Jukebox	643	(2)
Come All Ye Brave Boys	645	(2)
Sickness Blues	647	(2)
Gospel Noble Truths	649	(2)
Rolling Thunder Stones	651	(2)
Cabin in the Rockies	653	(1)
Reading French Poetry	654	(1)
Two Dreams	655	(2)
C'mon Jack	657	(1)
Pussy Blues	658	(1)
Don't Grow Old	659	(6)
"Junk Mail"	665	(3)
"You Might Get in Trouble"	668	(1)
Land O'Lakes, Wisc.	669	(1)
"Drive All Blames into One"	669	(1)
Land O'Lakes, Wisconsin: Vajrayana Seminary	670	(1)
For Creeley's Ear	671	(1)
Haunting Poe's Baltimore	672	(1)
Contest of Bards	673	(15)
I Lay Love on My Knee	688	(2)
Stool Pigeon Blues	690	(1)
Punk Rock Your My Big Crybaby	691	(1)
Love Replied	692
X. PLUTONIAN ODE (1977-1980)
What's Dead	697	(1)
Grim Skeleton	698	(2)
Ballade of Poisons	700	(1)
Lack Love	701	(1)
Father Guru	702	(1)
Manhattan May Day Midnight	703	(1)
Adapted from Neruda's "Que dispierte el leñador"	704	(3)
Nagasaki Days	707	(3)
Plutonian Ode	710	(5)
Old Pond	715	(2)
Blame the Thought, Cling to the Bummer	717	(1)
"Don't Grow Old"	718	(2)
Love Returned	720	(2)
December 31, 1978	722	(3)
Brooklyn College Brain	725	(1)
Garden State	726	(1)
Spring Fashions	727	(1)
Las Vegas: Verses Improvised for El Dorado H.S. Newspaper	728	(1)
To the Punks of Dawlish	729	(1)
Some Love	730	(1)
Maybe Love	731	(3)
Ruhr-Gebiet	734	(2)
Tubingen—Hamburg Schlafwagen	736	(1)
Love Forgiven	737	(1)
Verses Written for Student Antidraft Registration Rally 1980	738	(1)
Homework	739	(1)
After Whitman & Reznikoff	740	(1)
Reflections at Lake Louise	741	(2)
τepsilonthetaναkappaην &deta;' σλιγω 'πιδepsilonνηfinal sigma φαινomicronμ' αλαια	743	(1)
Fourth Floor, Dawn, Up All Night Writing Letters	744	(1)
Ode to Failure	745	(1)
Birdbrain!	746	(2)
Eroica	748	(2)
"Defending the Faith"	750	(1)
Capitol Air	751	(6)
Appendix for Collected Poems 1947-1980
Notes	757	(52)
Epigraphs from Original Editions	809	(1)
Dedications	810	(3)
Acknowledgments	813	(4)
Introduction by William Carlos Williams to Empty Mirror	817	(2)
Introduction by William Carlos Williams to Howl	819	(2)
Author's Cover Writ	821	(6)
Index of Proper Names	827	(14)
WHITE SHROUD: POEMS 1980-1985
Acknowledgments	841	(2)
Porch Scribbles	843	(2)
Industrial Waves	845	(4)
Those Two	849	(1)
Homage Vajracarya	850	(1)
Why I Meditate	851	(1)
Love Comes	852	(4)
Old Love Story	856	(3)
Airplane Blues	859	(4)
Do the Meditation Rock	863	(2)
The Little Fish Devours the Big Fish	865	(3)
Happening Now?	868	(1)
A Public Poetry	869	(1)
"What You Up To?"	870	(2)
Maturity	872	(1)
"Throw Out the Yellow Journalists of Bad Grammar & Terrible Manner"	873	(2)
Going to the World of the Dead	875	(2)
Irritable Vegetable	877	(1)
Thoughts Sitting Breathing II	878	(2)
What the Sea Throws Up at Vlissingen	880	(1)
I Am Not	881	(1)
I'm a Prisoner of Allen Ginsberg	882	(1)
221 Syllables at Rocky Mountain Dharma Center	883	(1)
Fighting Phantoms Fighting Phantoms	884	(1)
Arguments	885	(1)
Sunday Prayer	886	(1)
Brown Rice Quatrains	887	(1)
They're All Phantoms of My Imagining	888	(1)
White Shroud	889	(4)
Empire Air	893	(2)
Surprise Mind	895	(1)
Student Love	896	(1)
The Question	897	(1)
In My Kitchen in New York	898	(1)
It's All So Brief	899	(1)
I Love Old Whitman So	900	(1)
Written in My Dream by W.C. Williams	901	(2)
One Morning I Took a Walk in China	903	(2)
Reading Bai Juyi—I. II. III. IV. V. China Bronchitis VI. VU. Transformation of Bai's "A Night in Xingyang"	905	(6)
Black Shroud	911	(2)
World Karma	913	(2)
Prophecy	915	(1)
Memory Cousins	916	(1)
Moral Majority	917	(1)
The Guest	918	(3)
After Antipater	921	(1)
Jumping the Gun on the Sun	922	(3)
Cadillac Squawk	925	(1)
Things I Don't Know	926	(3)
Notes	929	(6)
COSMOPOLITAN GREETINGS: POEMS 1986-1992
Acknowledgments	935	(2)
Preface: Improvisation in Being	937	(4)
Prologue: Visiting Father & Friends	941	(2)
You Don't Know It	943	(4)
On the Conduct of the World Seeking Beauty Against Government	947	(1)
Hard Labor	948	(1)
Velocity of Money	949	(1)
Sphincter	950	(1)
Spot Anger	951	(1)
London Dream Doors	952	(2)
Cosmopolitan Greetings	954	(3)
Fifth Internationale	957	(2)
Europe, Who Knows?	959	(1)
Graphic Winces	960	(1)
Imitation of K.S.	961	(1)
I Went to the Movie of Life	962	(4)
When the Light Appears	966	(1)
On Cremation of Chögyam Trungpa, Vidyadhara	967	(2)
Nanao	969	(1)
Personals Ad	970	(1)
Proclamation	971	(1)
To Jacob Rabinowitz	972	(1)
Grandma Earth's Song	973	(3)
Salutations to Fernando Pessoa	976	(3)
May Days 1988	979	(3)
Numbers in U.S. File Cabinet	982	(2)
Return of Kral Majales	984	(1)
Elephant in the Meditation Hall	985	(2)
Poem in the Form of a Snake That Bites Its Tail	987	(8)
Mistaken Introductions	995	(2)
CIA Dope Calypso	997	(7)
N.S.A. Dope Calypso	1000	(2)
Just Say Yes Calypso	1002	(2)
Hum Born!	1004	(5)
Supplication for the Rebirth of the Vidyadhara	1009	(1)
After the Big Parade	1010	(1)
Big Eats	1011	(1)
Not Dead Yet	1012	(1)
Yiddishe Kopf	1013	(1)
John	1014	(2)
A Thief Stole This Poem	1016	(1)
Lunchtime	1017	(1)
Deadline Dragon Comix	1018	(1)
After Lalon	1019	(5)
Get It?	1024	(1)
Angelic Black Holes	1025	(1)
Research	1026	(3)
Put Down Your Cigarette Rag	1029	(4)
Violent Collaborations	1033	(2)
Calm Panic Campaign Promise	1035	(1)
Now and Forever	1036	(1)
Who Eats Who?	1037	(1)
The Charnel Ground	1038	(4)
Everyday	1042	(1)
Fun House Antique Store	1043	(2)
News Stays News	1045	(1)
Autumn Leaves	1046	(1)
In the Benjo	1047	(1)
American Sentences	1048	(3)
Notes	1051	(8)
DEATH FAME: POEMS 1993-1997
Acknowledgments	1059	(2)
Foreword	1061	(2)
New Democracy Wish List	1063	(3)
Peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina	1066	(2)
After the Party	1068	(1)
After Olav H. Hauge	1069	(1)
These knowing age	1070	(1)
C'mon Pigs of Western Civilization Eat More Grease	1071	(2)
Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush	1073	(1)
Tuesday Morn	1074	(2)
God	1076	(1)
Ah War	1077	(1)
Excrement	1078	(2)
New Stanzas for Amazing Grace	1080	(1)
City Lights City	1081	(1)
Newt Gingrich Declares War on "McGovernik Counterculture"	1082	(1)
Pastel Sentences (Selections)	1083	(4)
Nazi Capish	1087	(2)
Is About	1089	(2)
The Ballad of the Skeletons	1091	(5)
"You know what I'm saying?"	1096	(1)
Bowel Song	1097	(1)
Popular Tunes	1098	(2)
Five A.M.	1100	(1)
Power	1101	(1)
Anger	1102	(1)
Multiple Identity Questionnaire	1103	(1)
Don't Get Angry with Me	1104	(1)
Swan Songs in the Present	1105	(1)
Gone Gone Gone	1106	(2)
Reverse the rain of Terror	1108	(2)
Sending Message	1110	(2)
No! No! It's Not the End	1112	(3)
Bad Poem	1115	(1)
Homeless Compleynt	1116	(1)
Happy New Year Robert & June	1117	(1)
Diamond Bells	1118	(1)
Virtual Impunity Blues	1119	(1)
Waribashi	1120	(1)
Good Luck	1121	(1)
Some Little Boys Dont	1122	(1)
Jacking Off	1123	(1)
Think Tank Rhymes	1124	(1)
Song of the Washing Machine	1125	(1)
World Bank Blues	1126	(3)
Richard III	1129	(1)
Death & Fame	1130	(3)
Sexual Abuse	1133	(1)
Butterfly Mind	1134	(1)
A fellow named Steven	1135	(1)
Half Asleep	1136	(1)
Objective Subject	1137	(1)
Kerouac	1138	(1)
Hepatitis Body Itch...	1139	(1)
Whitmanic Poem	1140	(1)
American Sentences 1995-1997	1141	(3)
Variations on Ma Rainey's See See Rider	1144	(1)
Sky Words	1145	(2)
Scatalogical Observations	1147	(2)
My Team Is Red Hot	1149	(1)
Starry Rhymes	1150	(1)
Thirty State Bummers	1151	(5)
"I have a nosebleed..."	1156	(1)
"Timmy made a hot milk"	1156	(1)
"This kind of Hepatitis can cause ya"	1156	(1)
"Giddy-yup giddy-yup giddy-yap"	1156	(1)
"Turn on the heat & take a seat"	1157	(1)
Bop Sh'bam	1158	(1)
Dream	1159	(1)
Things I'll Not Do (Nostalgias)	1160	(3)
Afterword	1163	(4)
Notes	1167	(8)
Index of Titles, First Lines, and Original Book, Sources	1175

Excerpts

Collected Poems 1947-1997

In Society

I walked into the cocktail party
room and found three or four queers
talking together in queertalk.
I tried to be friendly but heard
myself talking to one in hiptalk.
"I'm glad to see you," he said, and
looked away. "Hmn," I mused. The room
was small and had a double-decker
bed in it, and cooking apparatus:
icebox, cabinet, toasters, stove;
the hosts seemed to live with room
enough only for cooking and sleeping.
My remark on this score was understood
but not appreciated. I was
offered refreshments, which I accepted.
I ate a sandwich of pure meat; an
enormous sandwich of human flesh,
I noticed, while I was chewing on it,
it also included a dirty asshole.

More company came, including a
fluffy female who looked like
a princess. She glared at me and
said immediately: "I don't like you,"
turned her head away, and refused
to be introduced. I said, "What!"
in outrage. "Why you shit-faced fool!"
This got everybody's attention.
"Why you narcissistic bitch! How
can you decide when you don't even
know me," I continued in a violent
and messianic voice, inspired at
last, dominating the whole room

Dream New York–Denver, Spring 1947

Collected Poems 1947-1997. Copyright © by Allen Ginsberg. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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Excerpted from Collected Poems, 1947-1997 by Allen Ginsberg
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.