My Barnes & Noble day planner makes note of the fact that today is Allen Ginsberg's birthday.
I saw Allen Ginsberg give a reading and speak in 1997, just a few months before he died. It was during my senior year of high school, and I went to the performance with a group of friends. I was very interested in Beat literature at the time-- Jack Kerouac was hands down my favorite author. I enjoyed Allen Ginsberg's poetry, too, of course, and I was thrilled to go see him speak. What a surprise to hear on the news just a few months later that he had passed away! I'm so glad that I took the opportunity to go see him.
Here's a short poem by the late Allen Ginsberg:
Fourth Floor, Dawn, Up All Night Writing Letters
Pigeons shake their wings on the copper church roof
out my window across the street, a bird perched on the cross
surveys the city's blue-grey clouds. Larry Rivers
'll come at 10 AM and take my picture. I'm taking
your picture, pigeons. I'm writing you down, Dawn.
I'm immortalizing your exhaust, Avenue A bus.
O Thought! Now you'll have to think the same thing forever!
New York, June 7, 1980, 6:48 A.M.
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