Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 359

March 30, 2018Simon Pettet

[Carl Solomon at home in the Bronx, 1991 – Photo: Allen Ginsberg, courtesy Stanford University Libraries]

Today, Friday March 30th. is Howl dedicatee, Carl Solomon‘s birthday. For last year’s Carl Solomon posting (“Remembering Carl Solomon”) – see here)

It’s also the anniversary of Rimbaud‘s lover, the poet, Paul Verlaine‘s birthday.  (For a posting on Verlaine’s “Chanson d’Automne” – see here)

And, while we’re on the subject of anniversaries – Our dear friend Bob Creeley died on this date thirteen years ago. Much missed, thinking of you, Bob.

David S Will’s Beatdom continues to deliver challenging A.G. … Read More

Expansive Poetics 92 – (Verlaine – Chanson D’Automne)

July 30, 2014admin

[Paul Verlaine (1844-1896)]

[Marlene Dietrich reading Paul Verlaine’s “Chanson d’automne c.1945]

That’s a very delicate little thing (Apollinaire’s “Le Pont Mirabeau”) That’s in a great French tradition of purely musical lyric, with a lot of Heraclitan impact, that is to say, you can’t step in the same river twice. Similar.. It’s a tradition of pure sound in French, also, melodious sound, which is (a) very good background for somebody trying to write an open-form poem like “Zone”, a tradition that Rimbaud’s friend, (Paul) Verlaine was also great at. I don’t know if you know … Read More

Rimbaud (Allen’s 1975 Naropa Class – 2)

December 8, 2011admin
[rimbaud2.gif]
Allen is in the middle of discussing Rimbaud’s “Parade”
AG:  ….interzone teacher gypsy sadist, well, there’s little elements of modernity in it, you could say, if it were called “Hell’s Angels”, it would be immediately apparent what the subject is – (a) Sideshow, (a) Parade (and romanticizing maybe, the traveling-circus). That’s a great line – “J’ai seul le clef de cette parade sauvage” – I alone have the key to the circus, parade. I alone have the key to the savage mental sideshow – “J’ai seul le clef de cette parade sauvage” [in the John Ashbery translation… Read More