ALLEN
GINSBERG
COLLECTED
POEMS
1947–1997
Collected Poems 1947–1997 is a compilation of the texts of
Collected Poems 1947–1980, White Shroud: Poems 1980–1985,
Cosmopolitan Greetings: Poems 1986–1992, and
Death & Fame: Poems 1993–1997.
The Estate would like to express gratitude to Eliot Katz for his dedication and assistance in preparation of this manuscript, Danny Mulligan at HarperCollins for attentive coordinating, and Jeffrey Posternak at the Wylie Agency for his tireless intermediation.
Contents
COLLECTED POEMS 1947–1980
Author’s Preface, Reader’s Manual
I. EMPTY MIRROR: GATES OF WRATH (1947–1952)
In Society
The Bricklayer’s Lunch Hour
Two Sonnets
On Reading William Blake’s “The Sick Rose”
The Eye Altering Alters All
A Very Dove
Vision 1948
Do We Understand Each Other?
The Voice of Rock
Refrain
A Western Ballad
The Trembling of the Veil
A Meaningless Institution
A Mad Gleam
Complaint of the Skeleton to Time
Psalm I
An Eastern Ballad
Sweet Levinsky
Psalm II
Fie My Fum
Pull My Daisy
The Shrouded Stranger
Stanzas: Written at Night in Radio City
After All, What Else Is There to Say?
Sometime Jailhouse Blues
Please Open the Window and Let Me In
“Tonite all is well”
Fyodor
Epigram on a Painting of Golgotha
“I attempted to concentrate”
Metaphysics
In Death, Cannot Reach What Is Most Near
This Is About Death
Hymn
Sunset
Ode to the Setting Sun
Paterson
Bop Lyrics
A Dream
Long Live the Spiderweb
The Shrouded Stranger
An Imaginary Rose in a Book
Crash
The Terms in Which I Think of Reality
The Night-Apple
Cézanne’s Ports
The Blue Angel
Two Boys Went Into a Dream Diner
A Desolation
In Memoriam: William Cannastra, 1922–1950
Ode: My 24th Year
How Come He Got Canned at the Ribbon Factory
The Archetype Poem
A Typical Affair
A Poem on America
After Dead Souls
Marijuana Notation
Gregory Corso’s Story
I Have Increased Power
Walking home at night
“I learned a world from each”
“I made love to myself”
A Ghost May Come
“I feel as if I am at a dead end”
An Atypical Affair
345 W. 15th St.
A Crazy Spiritual
Wild Orphan
II. THE GREEN AUTOMOBILE (1953–1954)
The Green Automobile
An Asphodel
My Alba
Sakyamuni Coming Out from the Mountain
Havana 1953
Green Valentine Blues
Siesta in Xbalba
Song (“The weight of the world”)
In back of the real
On Burroughs’ Work
Love Poem on Theme by Whitman
Over Kansas
III. HOWL, BEFORE & AFTER: SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA (1955–1956)
Malest Cornifici Tuo Catullo
Dream Record: June 8, 1955
“Blessed be the Muses”
Howl
Footnote to Howl
A Strange New Cottage in Berkeley
A Supermarket in California
Four Haiku
Sunflower Sutra
Transcription of Organ Music
Sather Gate Illumination
America
Fragment 1956
Afternoon Seattle
Tears
Scribble
In the Baggage Room at Greyhound
Psalm III
Many Loves
Ready to Roll
IV. REALITY SANDWICHES: EUROPE! EUROPE: (1957–1959)
POEM Rocket
Squeal
Wrote This Last Night
Death to Van Gogh’s Ear!
Europe! Europe!
The Lion for Real
The Names
At Apollinaire’s Grave
Message
To Lindsay
To Aunt Rose
American Change
‘Back on Times Square, Dreaming of Times Square’
Laughing Gas
Funny Death
My Sad Self
Ignu
Battleship Newsreel
V. KADDISH AND RELATED POEMS (1959–1960)
Kaddish: Proem, Narrative, Hymmnn, Lament, Litany and Fugue
Mescaline
Lysergic Acid
I Beg You Come Back & Be Cheerful
Psalm IV
To an Old Poet in Peru
Aether
Magic Psalm
The Reply
The End
Man’s glory
Fragment: The Names II
VI. PLANET NEWS: TO EUROPE AND ASIA (1961–1963)
Who Will Take Over the Universe
Journal Night Thoughts
Television Was a Baby Crawling Toward That Deathchamber
This Form of Life Needs Sex
Sunset S.S. Azemour
Seabattle of Salamis Took Place off Perama
Galilee Shore
Stotras to Kali Destroyer of Illusions
To P.O.
Heat
Describe: The Rain on Dasaswamedh Ghat
Death News
Vulture Peak: Gridhakuta Hill
Patna-Benares Express
Last Night in Calcutta
Understand That This Is a Dream
Angkor Wat
The Change: Kyoto-Tokyo Express
VII. KING OF MAY: AMERICA TO EUROPE (1963–1965)
Nov. 23, 1963: Alone
Why Is God Love, Jack?
Morning
Waking in New York
After Yeats
I Am a Victim of Telephone
Today
Message II
Big Beat
Café in Warsaw
The Moments Return
Kral Majales
Guru
Drowse Murmurs
Who Be Kind To
Studying the Signs
Portland Coliseum
VIII. THE FALL OF AMERICA (1965–1971)
Thru the Vortex West Coast to East (1965–1966)
Beginning of a Poem of These States
Carmel Valley
First Party at Ken Kesey’s with Hell’s Angels
Continuation of a Long Poem of These States
These States: into L.A.
A Methedrine Vision in Hollywood
Hiway Poesy: L.A.-Albuquerque-Texas-Wichita
Chances “R”
Wichita Vortex Sutra
Auto Poesy: On the Lam from Bloomington
Kansas City to Saint Louis
Bayonne Entering NYC
Growing Old Again
Uptown
The Old Village Before I Die
Consulting I Ching Smoking Pot Listening to the Fugs Sing Blake
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Zigzag Back Thru These States (1966—1967)
Wings Lifted over the Black Pit
Cleveland, the Flats
To the Body
Iron Horse
City Midnight Junk Strains
A Vow
Autumn Gold: New England Fall
Done, Finished with the Biggest Cock
Holy Ghost on the Nod over the Body of Bliss
Bayonne Turnpike to Tuscarora
An Open Window on Chicago
Returning North of Vortex
Wales Visitation
Pentagon Exorcism
Elegy Che Guevara
War Profit Litany
Elegies for Neal Cassady (1968)
Elegy for Neal Cassady
Chicago to Salt Lake by Air
Kiss Ass
Manhattan Thirties Flash
Please Master
A Prophecy
Bixby Canyon
Crossing Nation
Smoke Rolling Down Street
Pertussin
Swirls of black dust on Avenue D
Violence
Past Silver Durango Over Mexic Sierra-Wrinkles
On Neal’s Ashes
Going to Chicago
Grant Park: August 28, 1968
Car Crash
Ecologues of These States (1969–1971)
Over Denver Again
Imaginary Universes
Rising over night-blackened Detroit Streets
To Poe: Over the Planet, Air Albany–Baltimore
Easter Sunday
Falling Asleep in America
Northwest Passage
Sonora Desert-Edge
Reflections in Sleepy Eye
Independence Day
In a Moonlit Hermit’s Cabin
Rain-wet asphalt heat, garbage curbed cans overflowing
Death on All Fronts
Memory Gardens
Flash Back
Graffiti 12th Cubicle Men’s Room Syracuse Airport
After Thoughts
G. S. Reading Poesy at Princeton
Friday the Thirteenth
Anti-Vietnam War Peace Mobilization
Ecologue
Guru Om
“Have You Seen This Movie?”
Milarepa Taste
Over Laramie
Bixby Canyon to Jessore Road (1971)
Bixby Canyon Ocean Path Word Breeze
Hum Bom!
September on Jessore Road
IX. MIND BREATHS ALL OVER THE PLACE (1972–1977)
Sad Dust Glories (1972–1974)
Ayers Rock/Uluru Song
Voznesensky’s “Silent Tingling”
These States: to Miami Presidential Convention
Xmas Gift
Thoughts Sitting Breathing
“What would you do if you lost it?”
Who
Yes and It’s Hopeless
Under the world there’s a lot of ass, a lot of cunt
Returning to the Country for a Brief Visit
Night Gleam
What I’d Like to Do
On Illness
News Bulletin
On Neruda’s Death
Mind Breaths
Flying Elegy
Teton Village
Sweet Boy, Gimme Yr Ass
Jaweh and Allah Battle
Manifesto
Sad Dust Glories
Ego Confessions (1974–1977)
Ego Confession
Mugging
Who Runs America?
Thoughts on a Breath
We Rise on Sun Beams and Fall in the Night
Written on Hotel Napkin: Chicago Futures
Hospital Window
Hadda Be Playing on the Jukebox
Come All Ye Brave Boys
Sickness Blues
Gospel Noble Truths
Rolling Thunder Stones
Cabin in the Rockies
Reading French Poetry
Two Dreams
C’mon Jack
Pussy Blues
Don’t Grow Old
“Junk Mail”
“You Might Get in Trouble”
Land O’Lakes, Wisc.
“Drive All Blames into One”
Land O’Lakes, Wisconsin: Vajrayana Seminary
For Creeley’s Ear
Haunting Poe’s Baltimore
Contest of Bards
I Lay Love on My Knee
Stool Pigeon Blues
Punk Rock Your My Big Crybaby
Love Replied
X. PLUTONIAN ODE (1977–1980)
What’s Dead
Grim Skeleton
Ballade of Poisons
Lack Love
Father Guru
Manhattan May Day Midnight
Adapted from Neruda’s “Que dispierte el leñador”
Nagasaki Days
Plutonian Ode
Old Pond
Blame the Thought, Cling to the Bummer
“Don’t Grow Old”
Love Returned
December 31, 1978
Brooklyn College Brain
Garden State
Spring Fashions
Las Vegas: Verses Improvised for El Dorado H.S. Newspaper
To the Punks of Dawlish
Some Love
Maybe Love
Ruhr-Gebiet
Tübingen-Hamburg Schlafwagen
Love Forgiven
Verses Written for Student Antidraft Registration Rally 1980
Homework
After Whitman & Reznikoff
Reflections at Lake Louise
τεθνάκην δ’ όλίγω ’πιδενης ϕαίόμ’ άλαία
Fourth Floor, Dawn, Up All Night Writing Letters
Ode to Failure
Birdbrain!
Eroica
“Defending the Faith”
Capitol Air
Appendix for Collected Poems 1947–1980
Notes
Epigraphs from Original Editions
Dedications
Acknowledgments
Introduction by William Carlos Williams to Empty Mirror
Introduction by William Carlos Williams to Howl
Author’s Cover Writ
Index of Proper Names
WHITE SHROUD: POEMS 1980–1985
Acknowledgments
Porch Scribbles
Industrial Waves
Those Two
Homage Vajracarya
Why I Meditate
Love Comes
Old Love Story
Airplane Blues
Do the Meditation Rock
The Little Fish Devours the Big Fish
Happening Now?
A Public Poetry
“What You Up To?”
Maturity
“Throw Out the Yellow Journalists of Bad Grammar & Terrible Manner”
Going to the World of the Dead
Irritable Vegetable
Thoughts Sitting Breathing II
What the Sea Throws Up at Vlissingen
I Am Not
I’m a Prisoner of Allen Ginsberg
221 Syllables at Rocky Mountain Dharma Center
Fighting Phantoms Fighting Phantoms
Arguments
Sunday Prayer
Brown Rice Quatrains
They’re All Phantoms of My Imagining
White Shroud
Empire Air
Surprise Mind
Student Love
The Question
In My Kitchen in New York
It’s All So Brief
I Love Old Whitman So
Written in My Dream by W. C. Williams
One Morning I Took a Walk in China
Reading Bai Juyi—I. II. III. IV. V China Bronchitis VI. VII.
Transformation of Bai’s “A Night in Xingyang”
Black Shroud
World Karma
Prophecy
Memory Cousins
Moral Ma
jority
The Guest
After Antipater
Jumping the Gun on the Sun
Cadillac Squawk
Things I Don’t Know
Notes
COSMOPOLITAN GREETINGS: POEMS 1986–1992
Acknowledgments
Preface: Improvisation in Beijing
Prologue: Visiting Father & Friends
You Don’t Know It
On the Conduct of the World Seeking Beauty Against Government
Hard Labor
Velocity of Money
Sphincter
Spot Anger
London Dream Doors
Cosmopolitan Greetings
Fifth Internationale
Europe, Who Knows?
Graphic Winces
Imitation of K.S.
I Went to the Movie of Life
When the Light Appears
On Cremation of Chögyam Trungpa, Vidyadhara
Nanao
Personals Ad
Proclamation
To Jacob Rabinowitz
Grandma Earth’s Song
Salutations to Fernando Pessoa
May Days 1988
Numbers in U.S. File Cabinet
Return of Kral Majales
Elephant in the Meditation Hall
Poem in the Form of a Snake That Bites Its Tail
Mistaken Introductions
CIA Dope Calypso
N.S.A. Dope Calypso
Just Say Yes Calypso
Hum Bom!
Supplication for the Rebirth of the Vidyadhara
After the Big Parade
Big Eats
Not Dead Yet
Yiddishe Kopf
John
A Thief Stole This Poem
Lunchtime
Deadline Dragon Comix
After Lalon
Get It?
Angelic Black Holes
Research
Put Down Your Cigarette Rag
Violent Collaborations
Calm Panic Campaign Promise
Now and Forever
Who Eats Who?
The Charnel Ground
Everyday
Fun House Antique Store
News Stays News
Autumn Leaves
In the Benjo
American Sentences
Notes
DEATH & FAME: POEMS 1993–1997
Acknowledgments
Foreword
New Democracy Wish List
Peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina
After the Party
After Olav H. Hauge
These knowing age
C’mon Pigs of Western Civilization Eat More Grease
Here We Go ’Round the Mulberry Bush
Tuesday Morn
God
Ah War
Excrement
New Stanzas for Amazing Grace
City Lights City
Newt Gingrich Declares War on “McGovernik Counterculture”
Pastel Sentences (Selections)
Nazi Capish
Is About
The Ballad of the Skeletons
“You know what I’m saying?”
Bowel Song
Popular Tunes
Collected Poems 1947-1997 Page 1
