World Earth Day today, 56 years on from the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, in which Allen was a prescient and enthusiastic contributor – see here.
Previous Earth Day postings on the Allen Ginsberg Project here, here, here and here
We celebrate today with the late great Nanao Sakaki
from the aptly-named How To Live On The Planet Earth – the title poem:
How To Live On The Planet Earth
Dwell in the neighborhood
Of stars & rainbows.
With donkey’s ears
Listen to the wind whispering.
With monkey’s limbs
Hang around mountains & rivers.
Be rich in wild life.
Waste not, want not in human life.
Don’t work without hearty sweat.
From afar
Ah, one of my dear friends arrives.
Let’s have a daikon dish, home-made Sake & songs.
Shadow’s shadows –
Supermarket, hospital & bank –
What a perfect sight.
Under the horizon of the void
The authorities set.
The sun & the moon
To look up forever.
Nanao Sakaki
January, 1997