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Shmuel Halevi
| Posted on Monday, December 22, 2003 - 18:57: | |
Hi forum. Hope you'll like this poem, I liked it a lot. Shmuel. ========================================= Allen Ginsberg (1926-1998) (In this extraordinary poem, Allen Ginsberg, one of America's foremost poets, beautifully describes the thoughts that go through his mind while practicing Tai Chi in his kitchen in the morning waiting for his oatmeal to boil.) In my kitchen in New York by Allen Ginsberg (for Bataan Faigao) Bend knees, shift weight Picasso's blue deathhead self portrait tacked on refrigerator door This is the only space in the apartment big enough to do t'ai chi Straighten right foot & rise--I wonder if I should have set aside that garbage pail Raise up my hands & bring them back to shoulders--The towels and pyjama laundry's hanging on a rope in the hall Push down & grasp the sparrow's tail Those paper boxes of grocery bags are blocking the closed door Turn north--I should hang up all those pots on the stovetop Am I holding the world right? That Hopi picture on the wall shows rain & lightning bolt Turn right again--thru the door, God my office space is a mess of pictures & unanswered letters Left on my hips--Thank God Arthur Rimbaud's watching me from over the sink Single whip--piano's in the room, well Steven & Maria finally'll move to their own apartment next week! His pants're still here & Julius in his bed This gesture's the opposite of St. Francis in Ecstasy by Bellini--hands down for me I better concentrate on what I'm doing weight in belly, move by hips No, that was the single whip--that apron's hanging on the North wall a year I haven't used it once Except to wipe my hands--the Crane spreads its wings have I paid the electric bill? Playing the guitar do I have enough $ to leave the rent paid while I'm in China? Brush knee--that was good halavah, pounded sesame seed, in the icebox a week Withdraw & push--I should get a loft or giant living room The land speculators bought up all the sqaure feet in Manhattan, beginning with the Indians Cross hands--I should write a letter to the Times saying it's unethical Come to rest hands down knees straight--I wonder how my liver's doing. O.K. I guess tonite, I quit smoking last week. I wonder if they'll blow up an H Bomb? Probably not. -Manhattan Midnite, September 5, 1984
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