Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 183

“Jahweh and Allah Battle”. We thank our good friend Steve Silberman for his reminder about Allen’s “eternally prescient” 1974 poem

Jaweh with Atom Bomb
Allah cuts throat of Infidels
Jaweh’s armies beat down neighbouring tribes
Will Red Sea waters close & drown th’armies of Allah?

Israel’s tribes worshipping the Golden Calf
Moses broke the Tablets of Law.

Zalmon Schacter Lubovitcher Rebbe what you say
Stone Commandments broken on the ground
Sufi Sam whaddya say
Shall Prophet’s companions dance circled
round Synagogue while Jews doven bearded electric?

Both Gods Terrible! Awful Jaweh Allah!
Both hook-nosed-gods, circumcised.
Jaweh Allah which unreal?
Which stronger Illusion?
Which stronger Army?
Which gives most frightening command?
What God maintain egohood in Eden? Which be Nameless?
Which enter Abyss of Light?
Worlds of Gods, jealous Warriors, Humans, Animals & Flowers,
Hungry Ghosts, even Hell Beings all die,
Snake cock and pig eat each other’s tails and perish
All Jews all Moslems’ll die All Israelis all Arabs
Cairo’s angry millions Jerusalem’s multitudes
suffer Death’s dream Armies in battle!
Yea let Tribes wander to tin camps at cold Europe’s walls?
Yea let the Million sit in the desert shantytowns with tin cups?
I’m a Jew cries Allah! Buddha circumcised!
Snake sneaking an apple to Eden –
Alien, Wanderer, Caller of the Great Call!
What Prophet born on this ground
bound me Eternal to Palestine
circled by Armies tanks, droning bomber motors,
radar electronic computers?
What Mind directed Stern Gang Irgun Al Fatah
Black September?
Meyer Lanksy? Nixon Shah? Gangster? Premier? King?
one-eyed General Dayan?
Golda Meir and Kissinger bound me with Arms?
HITLER AND STALIN SENT ME HERE!
WEIZMANN AND BEN-GURION SENT ME HERE!
NASSER AND SADAT SENT ME HERE!
ARAFAT SENT ME HERE! MESSIAH SENT ME HERE!
GOD SENT ME HERE!
Buchenwald sent me here! Vietnam sent me here!
Mylai sent me here!
Lidice sent me here!
My mother sent me here!
I WAS BORN HERE IN ISRAEL, Arab
circumcised, my father had a coffee shop in Jerusalem
One day the soldiers came and told me to walk down road
my hands up
walk away leave my house business forever!
The Israelis sent me here!
Solomon’s Temple the Pyramids & Sphinx sent me here!
JAWEH AND ALLAH SENT ME HERE!
Abraham will take me to his bosom!
Mohammed will guide me to Paradise!
Christ sent me here to be crucified!
Buddha will wipe out and destroy the world.
The New York Times and Cairo Editorialist Heykal sent me here!
Commentary and Palestine Review sent me here!
The International Zionist Conspiracy sent me here!
Syrian Politicians sent me here! Heroic Pan-Arab
Nationalists sent me here!
They’re sending Armies to my side –
The Americans & Russians are sending bombing planes tanks
Chinese Egyptians Syrians help me battle for my righteous
house my Soul’s dirt Spirit’s Nation body’s
boundaries & Self’s territory my
Zionist homeland my Palestine inheritance
The Capitalist Communist & Third World Peoples’
Republics Dictatorships Police States Socialisms and Democracies
are all sending Deadly Weapons to our aid!
We shall triumph over the Enemy!
Maintain our Separate Identity! Proud
History evermore!
Defend our own bodies here this Holy Land! This hill
Golgotha never forget, never relinquish
inhabit thru Eternity
under Allah Christ Yaweh forever one God
Shema Yisroel Adonoi Eluhenu Adonoi Echad!
La ilah illa’ Allah hu!

OY! AH! HU! OY! AH! HU!
SHALOM! SHANTIH! SALAAM!

Listen to a recording here – and here‘s another version (approximately twenty-two-a-half minutes in on the second tape). The poem was included in the City Lights collection, Mind Breaths, Poems 1972-1977, and, of course in the Collected Poems.

William Everson/Brother Antoninus (1912-1994)

I Have A Conversation with Allen Ginsberg” – We’ve solicited them before – memorable conversations with Allen Ginsberg. Robert Haskell remembers a conversation with Allen regarding his (Haskell’s) close friend and mentor, the sorely-neglected West Coast poet William Everson, Brother Antoninus. “..I was looking into gentle eyes look(ing) inquiringly and compassionately into mine, as the poet (Ginsberg) very sincerely asked me to, “Say a prayer for me too when you’re at his grave“.

 

“While the Beats were deeply indebted to the American culture they both celebrated and castigated, from the very beginning Beat writers and their works were a global phenomenon..”, writes  Erik Mortensen, in his cogent review, for EBSN, of Nancy Grace and Jennie Skerl’s 2012 anthology,  The Transnational Beat Generation   

That’s something we’re ever mindful of here at the Ginsberg Project. We, at least try not to be too US-centric (NYC-San Francisco-centric?) Well, we try.

Here David Amram (from a few years back)  en francais, talking about Jack Kerouac


(Et aussi)  
Jack Kerouac

Meanwhile in Lowell, the debate continues about proper Kerouac civic recognition – notwithstanding this and this (the next LCK (Lowell Celebrates Kerouac) is October 9 -12, by the way)

Six Cities to Live A Bit of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road Adventure

David S Wills’ Beatdom. The new issue of the magazine (issue#15) is now on sale, with a focus (coincidentally or otherwise) on war – “People think of the Beats as post-war, entirely separate and disinterested”, Wills writes, “But we disagree. In this issue we explore the relationship between the Beats and war, from (Jack) Kerouac and (Allen) Ginsberg in the navy, to (William) Burroughs‘ intergalactic battles, to the influence of postmemory, to the British Beat movement as growing out of WWII, and we also talk to (Colonel) Gordon Ball about Allen Ginsberg teaching in the U.S.Army”

Cadets read Howl, February 19, 1991, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Vir

February 19, 1991, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia – Photograph by Gordon Ball

Alessandro Manca and Andrea Labate, along with saxophonist Massimiliano Milesi and bassist Roberto Frassini Moneta  will be performing their Beat Generation show in Bergamo on Saturday (and Pavia on Sunday)   

Frank O’Hara in Biarritz (1960) Photo by John Ashbery

Today (July 25) marks the anniversary of a tragedy. Forty-eight years since the senseless death of the great American poet, Frank O’Hara

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