Allen Ginsberg-Gregory Corso conversation continues from – here
GC: Right, I want to find out if you saw these people .
Do you remember once we went to see Yoko Ono..
AG: Yeah
GC: and she had some young guys up there and she was playing a record called Dogtown, and so I asked her “where are all the new young poets?”, and she said “here they are” – her and these dudes that she was with. Do you think so? Do you think those rock ‘n rollers are poets? Do you think that guy Jim Morrison, who has on his tombstone “Poet”…? [Editorial note – not exactly POETA but “KATA TON DAIMONA EAUTOU” (“True to his own spirit/True to his own daimon”) – see here – and also see here)]
AG: No, not so good, not so good
GC: Do you think that (Bob) Dylan’s a poet?
AG: Yeah, Dylan, I’d say (is a) poet. Dylan’s a poet, I would say.
GC: Good one-liner, a good lyric man, but would you say poet?
AG: Yeah, Well, what is poetry?
GC: Ah ok. I’ll tell you what poetry is. .Poets who want to stay in an anthology!..
AG: Yeah.
GC: …who contentedly write… but you’re right, “who is a poet”?
AG: I would say he’s written a great immortal line.
GC: That’s it, for sure For sure, for sure.
AG: Immortal place, immortal lines.
GC: But not many of those rock n rollers, right?
AG: Not many, no, I would say John Lennon. wrote a few great lines
GC: Yeah, John Lennon
AG: Maybe Tom Waits might turn out to be interesting.
GC: I like his voice a lot.
AG: But his words, apparently, are interesting
GC: Yeah, when he sings Waltzing Matilda, I love it. You know that song, Waltzing Matilda?
AG: No, I haven’t heard that.
GC (begins singing, imitating Tom Waits!) “Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda” You know it? You know his voice right?
AG: Yeah I know his voice but I don’t know how he sang it.
GC: It’s a great song..