Allen Ginsberg I Should Like to Never Have to Work Again

Read Allen Ginsberg'south Poignant Terminal Poem "Things I'll Not Do (Nostalgias)"

Allen Ginsberg died on April 5, 1997. Less than a calendar week before, after the long terminally ill poet had fabricated parting phone calls to nearly everyone in his address volume, he wrote the poem above, "Things I'll Not Practice (Nostalgias)." He one time called all his work extended biography, and nosotros might call this detail work a piece of biography extended into speculation, comprising all the places (Tibet, Morocco, Los Angeles), people (composer Philip Glass, noted Tangier expat Paul Bowles, his own relatives), and things (attending concerts, education students, smoking various substances) he knew he would never feel again, or indeed for the first time — items left over, in short, from what we might now call Ginsberg's bucket list. The transcript runs as follows:

Never go to Bulgaria, had a booklet & invitation
Same Albania, invited terminal yr, privately by Lottery scammers or
recovering alcoholics,
Or enlightened poets of the antique land of Hades Gates
Nor visit Lhasa live in Hilton or Ngawang Gelek's household & weary
ascend Potala
Nor ever return to Kashi "oldest continuously habited city in the earth"
bathe in Ganges & sit again at Manikarnika ghat with Peter,
visit Lord Jagganath again in Puri, never back to Bibhum take
notes tales of Khaki B Baba
Or hear music festivals in Madras with Philip
Or enter to take Chai with older Sunil & Young coffeeshop poets,
Necktie my caput on a block in the Chinatown opium den, pass by Moslem
Hotel, its rooftop Tinsmith Street Choudui Chowh Nimtallah
Called-for ground nor smoke ganja on the Hooghly
Nor the alleyways of Achmed's Fez, nevermore drink mint tea at Soco
Chico, visit Paul B. in Tangiers
Or run into the Sphinx in Desert at Sunrise or dusk, morn & sunset in the
desert
Aboriginal sollapsed Beirut, sad bombed Babylon & Ur of old, Syria's
grim mysteries all Araby & Saudi Deserts, Yemen'due south sprightly
folk,
Old opium tribal Afghanistan, Tibet – Templed Beluchistan
Come across Shangha again, nor cares of Dunhuang
Nor climb East. 12th Street'south stairway 3 flights again,
Nor get to literary Argentine republic, back-trail Drinking glass to Sao Paolo & live a
calendar month in a flat Rio's beaches and favella boys, Bahia's great
Carnival
Nor more than fantasize of Bali, as well far Adelaide's festival to go new scent
sticks
Not encounter the new slums of Jakarta, mysterious Borneo forests & painted
men and women
Nor mor Sunset Boulevard, Melrose Avenue, Oz on Ocean Mode
Former cousin Danny Leegant, memories of Aunt Edith in Santa Monica
No mor sweet summers with lovers, teaching Blake at naropa,
Mind Writing Slogans, new mod American Poetics, Williams
Kerouac Reznikoff Rakosi Corso Creely Orlovsky
Whatever visits to B'nai Israel graves of Buda, Aunt Rose, Harry Meltzer and
Aunt Clara, Father Louis
Not myself except in an urn of ashes

March 30, 1997, A.Grand.

Allen Ginsberg

As much of a final argument as it sounds similar, "Things I'll Not Do (Nostalgias)" remains, in a manner, a work in progress, given the manuscript'due south semi-decipherable hand. "Although many of his poems' first drafts looked similar this," say the caretakers of AllenGinsberg.org, "if anything was unclear, nosotros could simply ask. That, obviously, wasn't an pick later April 5 that yr." Ten of Ginsberg's assembly passed the paper effectually, Google- and Wikipedialessly trying to piece together all of his characteristically far-flung references. The Caves of Dunhuang "went incorrectly transcribed for the kickoff edition as 'cares of Dunhuang', since none of us were aware these were caves," and "when nosotros got to the 'antiquarian lands of Hades Necromanteion," we couldn't find a single reference to information technology anywhere, and in the end simply stated 'Hades Gates.' That'due south how it'south published today — still. Till the next edition that is."

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Colin Marshall hosts and produces Notebook on Cities and Culture and writes essays on cities, Asia, picture show, literature, and aesthetics. He's at work on a book about Los Angeles, A Los Angeles Primer. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on his brand new Facebook page.

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Source: https://www.openculture.com/2014/01/read-allen-ginsbergs-poignant-final-poem-things-ill-not-do-nostalgias.html