Allen Ginsberg’s October 31 (Halloween) 1969 Montreal reading (begun here) continues with a reading of his poem “Car Crash!” – [dated 1:30 AM, Jan 1. 1969, subsequently included in The Fall of America – Poems of These States 1965-1971 (1972)] – “I’m starting off a year ago, that is poetry of the last year”– (“Snow blizzard sowing/ice-powder drifts on stone fenced/gardens near grey woods”…”..Rimbaud/age 16 adolescent sneers tight-lipt/ green eyed oval in old time gravure/-1869 his vevet tie askew, hair/mussed & ruffled by the policeman’s rape”)
At approximately thirty-one-and-a-half minutes in, Allen continues with “Continuation of A Long Poem on These States” – “Imaginary Universes” [also later included in The Fall of America] – “It’s part of a long poem, written, like transcriptions of my consciousness during wartime US last year or two, since 1965 to now” – “Imaginary Universes” – (“Under order to shoot a spy, I discharged/ my pistol into his mouth./He fell face down from the position life/left his body kneeling blindfold…..””On account of my best friend &/my brother I killed both Gooks.”/That was true, yes.”)
Allen comments momentarily on the audio – “The incense broke an ashtray! – that was what that little clink was all about”) – before continuing:
By Air Albany, New York, to Baltimore – which is where Edgar Allan Poe died, so “To Poe” [“To Poe Over The Planet Albany-Baltimore”]– (“Albany throned in snow Hudson ribboned North ice white flats/New England’s blue sky…”…”..Poe/ Died kidnapped by phantoms/conspiring to win elections/in the Deathly Gutter of 19th Century”)
followed by
“Falling Asleep in America” – (“We’re in the Great Place, Fable Place Beulah, Man wedded to Earth, Planet of green Grass..”…”…flickering grass green returns me to/Nashville.”
followed by
July 4th 1969 [“Independence Day”] – “(Orange hawk eye stronger than thought, winking above a thousand thin grassblades…”…”Independence Day! the Cow’s deep moo’s an Aum!” – [and the additional lines (not included in the published version)]
“Cut my backbone, unstring my eyes and fingers/a million insects eat the body, soul empty as -/grass bends trembling in the breezy warble”)
Then, A continuation of “A Poem on These States”, April 1969 – (“Northwest Passage”) – Northwest, going from the Columbia River in the USA Northwest, through the Snake..of the Snake Gorge..where the Snake River meets the Columbia Rivera at a place called Lake Wallula, which is where Lewis and Clark went through to get the Northwest Passage, aided by an Indian lady, Sacagawea – (“Incense over Horse Heaven Hills/Empty logger trucks speed/Lake Wallula’s flatness shimmering..”…”Drive down valley to Main Street/Seattle First National Motor/next to Everybody’s Bank.”)
At approximately fifty-one minutes in, Allen declares – “I’ll read one more poem to finish this.. side.. to finish this..hour. I’m reading more or less in a chronological order.”
AG reads “Please Master” (! – tape cuts off last few lines) (“Please Master can I touch your cheek?”….”Go moan O please master do fuck me like that…”)
[& then chants – (at approximately fifty-six minutes in – more cymbals and ambient sound – Allen accompanying himself on harmonium] – “Hare-om-namah-shivaya”
“To Shiva” – (an insight) into divine nature, regarding change, birth, death, the dance of creation, the dance of destruction (hatred), (jealousy), from tired yogis (and holy men) who worship by smoking ganja, or cannabis sativa, in India. So, a mantra to the Canadian Commission who will be here next week to investigate the possibility of legalizing marijuana.. Hare-om-namah-shivaya…
to be continued
[Audio for the above can be heard here (beginning at approximately twenty-five-and-a-half minutes in (the second segment) and continuing until approximately sixty five minutes in quarter minutes in [i.e. at the end of the second segment of the tape] (and also one-and-a-half minutes into the third segment]