Allen Ginsberg in Vancouver, 1985 – Part 2

A continuation from Lenore Herb’s enlightening video-recording of Allen’s 1985 reading in Vancouver – see here

From the Lenore Herb Archive held at The Crista Dahl Media Library & Archive, VIVO Media Arts Centre, Vancouver, Canada

Allen is accompanied on this occasion by the guitarist, Gary Cramer

The tape begins in media res, with Allen reading from (a pre-publication version of)  his poem “World Karma”  (….burying  his armies alive/Later Ming tombs buried excavator architects/& Mao officially buried 20,000,000 in Shit Freeze & Exile. much Suicide…”..”Russia had Czars and Stalin, all Yiddish poets shot August 12, 1952, in Lubyanka basement, everybody got drunk afterward,/everyone still whispers on street corners/America forever democratic, lawless sheriffs shot Indians, bad men, good men, chinks kikes niggers and each other”…”we had to Get Back to America lets Stand Up Tall/ so we can insulate rest of the world”…”other side of Eternal Dreamtime I vote for Australian Aborigines!/ Let them run the world after Hi Tech’s annihilated all other species & genetic strains/from whale to donkey sperm.”)

So I’ll finish with two poems and then we’ll be done – “Memory Cousin” (again, a pre-publication version) – “Memory Cousin” (“After long absence, I returned from the land the dead/ to visit my stepmother in her suburban apartment./  I looked from a distance, was it a mental hospital/standing on a grass plain far from Manhattan’s skyscrapers/after crossing Washington Bridge, or Jersey’s track houses/ risen gigantic during my exile in China..”… “If go away now I’ll be gone forever, Peter,/ Stepmother Edith, Aunt Honey & Leo, Aunt Clara/ and Uncle Abe, my brother Gene & Connie & the kids,/ I may never see them again. Here are their living eyes,/here’s the end of the Immortal Dream.”)

And I’ll finish, last poem, March 1985 (again, pre-publication)   – “The Guest” – (“I’ve a pain in my back/ Fifth lumbar & sacrum/ Kidneystones alas alack/ can’t drink milk calcium/ High blood pressure about/salt I can’t eat/ at my age no red meat/ sometimes I get gout…”…”Next night we hugged and slept/ Chaste again and affectionate/ I answered the phone all day but kept/ winding him in my mental net—/ He wasn’t excited by my body/ I couldn’t expect his sexual love/ After this week would I approve/ his visiting, if I had to sleep lonely?”)

I’ll finish with a sing-a-long by William Blake – “The Nurse’s Song” – The line at the end can be repeated, like mantra, or like chorus – “All the hills echo-ed” -)”When the voices of children…”…” “All the hills echo-ed”)   – [thunderous applause]  [Allen returns for an encore] – We’ll finish with William Blake’s “The Tyger”  (Tyger, Tyger..”…  “..fearful symmetry”) – Thank you. It’s late. Good night. Thank you.

One comment

  1. I can’t tell you how delighted I was to see your film from that 1985 day. I was a teenager, and late to arrive to the auditorium. I was with my friend and we were so disappointed to find that the place was full up to capacity. We were being turned away. The organizers, seeing our sad faces, changed thir minds. They found room for us on stage alongside his friends. The memory has always been vivid in my mind. Over the years I’ve had trouble verifying that this special day even happened. Thank you thank you thank you thank you. Seeing Robin Blaser and everyone. Allan’s friends who were sitting next to us were so overjoyed to see him perform that tears were running down their faces. Tears were running down my teenage face too since I could sense how meaningful it was. Thanks to your document, I now know my memory didn’t distort. So touching. So touching. Again,…. thanks.
    Kevvie Head

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