1989, Ginsberg and Corso – The Conversation Continues – 4

World heavyweight champion, Mike Tyson, Las Vegas, Nevada, ca. October 2006

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continuing from here

Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso in conversation 

Allen and Gregory discuss the contemporary (1989) poetry terrain   

AG:  (Among our friends…) You know any young poets that can take up the relay?

GC: Now that’s something, Allen, I think they’d go to you more than me. alright?, because you’re more ensconced, , they know where you are, right?

AG: Eliot Katz has got some kind of talent. He’s too long-winded, but he has a ..

GC: So there you go. No, they’ve got to be perfecto and really believe it… If they’re young and they’ve got some talent, they’ve got to have it. For instance, that person that you like, that Antler..

AG: Yes

GC: Just by the name, he was very presumptuous and I didn’t  like it – Antler! – indeed! – it’s so hokey!

AG: But that’s what they called him in high school. That’s what they called him in high school.

GC: Yeah, yeah, come on.

AG: Well, he’s interesting, he’s an interesting poet.

GC: Well I guess that Andy Clausen is (another)..

AG: Oh, I just got a big manuscript from Clausen. I just sent it to (Lawrence) Ferlinghetti. Now Clausen, I think is a really interesting poet.

GC: Yeah, he is.

AG: He speaks to the time.

GC:  ..speaks to the time, right..

AG:  …and is the least published.

GC: ..least-published

AG: Amazing – He’s a hod-carrier and he’s a mensch.

GC: I think (new) poets are going to come along. See this guy Mike Tyson (sic). Right now there’s a thirteen-year-old fourteen-year-old kid who’s gonna beat the shit out of him one day. You got it?  Now no one knows who this kid is or where this kid is, but it’s gonna happen. Now I don’t like the field (but there’s) some thirteen-year-old, some poet, who’s gonna come along some day and be a top-shot guy, alright Al?

AG: I hope so.

GC: I hope so too.. but that’s rare, but that’s rare business, because…

to be continued

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