I wanted to go visit his San Francisco bookshop, “City Lights” and listen to Allen Ginsburg recite, “HOWL!”
An unapologetic proponent of “poetry as insurgent art,” he was also a publisher and author. I thought he was the coolest guy on the planet. I thought I’d add just one more. Aside from being very cool, his poetry was rather humorous. I particularly like this next one. It helps if you’ve seen Chagall’s windows.
Sometime During Eternity . . .
Sometime during eternity
some guys show up
and one of them
who shows up real late
is a kind of carpenter
from some square-type place
like Galilee
and he starts wailing
and claiming he is hip
to who made heaven
and earth
and that the cat
who really laid it on us
is his Dad
And moreover
he adds
It’s all writ down
on some scroll-type parchments
which some henchmen
leave lying around the Dead Sea somewhere
a long time ago
and which you won’t even find
for a coupla thousand years or so
or at least for
nineteen hundred and forty seven
of them
to be exact
and even then
nobody really believes them
or me
for that matter
You’re hot
they tell him
And they cool him
They stretch him on the Tree to cool
And everybody after that
is always making models
of this Tree
with Him hung up
and always crooning His name
and calling Him to come down
and sit in
on their combo
as if he is the king cat
who’s got to blow
or they can’t quite make it
Only he don’t come down
from His Tree
Him just hang there
on His Tree
looking real Petered out
and real cool
and also
according to a roundup
of late world news
from the usual unreliable sources
real dead
They were on display for a few weeks at the Museum of Modern Art in New York on their way to Jerusalem. A friend and I waited hours to get into the museum and see the windows where were stained glass. The museum had set lights behind them and they glowed.
Don’t Let That Horse . . .
Don’t let that horse
eat that violin
cried Chagall’s mother
But he
kept right on
painting
And became famous
And kept on painting
The Horse With Violin In Mouth
And when he finally finished it
he jumped up upon the horse
and rode away
waving the violin
And then with a low bow gave it
to the first naked nude he ran across
And there were no strings
attached
FLU SHOTS AND SEASONAL EXHAUSTION 
FAME AND FORTUNE 
ONE MILLION ONE THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED TWENTY SIX HITS 
AND THEN CAME SOME RAIN 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
THANKS So much. I just made a precious discovery!
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He really was brilliant. That whole group were. I didn’t like everything they did, but I was very impressed by what they were doing!
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Oh my, I had no idea he was still alive. If interested in Howl, see the very different film of that title with James Franco as Ginsberg. He reads Howl throughout the film.
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What’s the name of the film?
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The name of the film is “Howl.”
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Ferlinghetti is central to the film as he was the one put on trial for publishing “Howl” in the first place, not Ginsberg. It is a different sort of film with animated sequences to illustrate what Ginsberg (Franco) is reading. It received high praise, though not much commercial success. In reality, a clerk at Ferlinghetti’s store was in bigger trouble for being caught selling the book, but that part is left out. You can only do so much in 85 minutes.
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I will look for it. I have never seen it on any channel, so I’ll see if there’s a copy — new or used — on Amazon.
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The second album I did, while working at Elektra Records, was in 1972 for a group called “The Aztec Two Step” based on impressions sparked by the poems of Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
See it was like this when
we waltz into this place
a couple of Papish cats
is doing an Aztec Two Step
And I says
Dad let’s cut
but this dame
comes up behind me see
and says
You and me could really exist
Wow I says
Only the next day
she has bad teeth
and really hates
poetry
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
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He was very influential when I was growing into a writer. I had all his books.
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The poem is ironic and in many ways, shows real faith. Deep faith — but not in the standard way.
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Many years ago, when I was teaching seniors at an all-boys’ Catholic high school, our classes took turns selecting readings for Mass. One of my classes had not chosen a reading, so I gave them the above poem to red aloud. The class looked at me in dismay, but the young priest said he was impressed that they had chosen it. There was a huge sigh of relief from my students.
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I had his books. He was one of the people who made me want to write.
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