Submitted by J. A. Carpenter
Index
- Ted Berrigan: “Tough Brown Coat” “Heroin” “Something Amazing Just Happened” “In Anne’s Place”
- Anne Waldman: “Poem for Jim Carroll”
TOUGH BROWN COAT
by Ted Berrigan… For Jim Carroll
Tough brown coat
Tie with red roses
Green cord vest
Brown stripes
on soft white
shirt
white T-shirt
White man,
Tomorrow you die!
“You kidding me?”
HEROIN
by Ted Berrigan . . . For Jim Carroll
(2) photographs of Anne
80 years old
lovely, as always
a child
under an old fasion
duress
A Bibliography of Works
by Jack Kerouac
A white suit
and a black dress
w/ high-necked
mini-skirt
strolling
two by two
across a brown paper bag
above The Relation Ship
warm white thighs & floating bend gia pronto
my heart is filled with light
al curry
this
Life
that is
one, tho
the lamps
be many
& proud & there's a breeze sort of
lightly moving the top
of your head
& I'm going
way over
the white
skyline
& I'll do
what I want to
& you can't keep me here
no-how
& the streets are theirs now
& the tempo's
& the space.
SOMETHING AMAZING JUST HAPPENED
For Jim Carroll on his birthday
by Ted Berrigan
A lovely body gracefully is nodding
Out of a blue Buffalo
Monday morning
curls
softly rising color the air
it's yellow
above the black plane
beneath a red tensor
I've been dreaming. The telephone kept rining & ringing
clear & direct, purposeful yet pleasant, still taking pleasure
in bringing the good news, a young man in horn-rims' voice
is speaking
while I listen. Mr. Berrigan, he says, & without waiting
for an answer goes on,
I'm happy to be able to inform you that your request for
a Guggenheim Foundation Grant
Has been favorably received by the committee, & approved. When
would you like to leave?
Uh, not just yet, I said, uh, what exactly did I say with regards to
leaving, in my application...I'm a little hazy at the moment.
Yes. Your project, as outlined in your application for a grant for
the purpose of giving Jim Carroll the best possible birthday present
you could get him, through our Foundation, actually left the
project, that is,
how the monies
would be spent, up to us. You indicated, wisely, I think, that we know
more about what kind of project we would approve than you did,
so we should
make one up for you, since all you wanted was money, to buy Jim
a birthday gift.
Aha!I said. So, what's up?
We have arranged for you and Jim to spend a year in London,
in a flat
off of King's Row.
You will receive 250 pounds each a month expenses, all travel
expenses paid, & a clothing allowance of 25 pounds each per month.
During the year,
At your leisure, you might send us from time to time copies of your London
works. By year's end I'm sure you will each have enough new poems for two
new books,
which we would then publish in a deluxe boxed hardcover edition,
for the rights to which we shall be prepared to pay a
considerable sum, as is your due.
We feel that this inspired project will most surely result in the first
major boxed set of works since Tom Sawyer &
Huckleberry Finn! Innocents Abroad
in reverse, so to speak! We know your poems, yours & Jim's, will
tell it like it is, & that is what we are desperate to know! So, when
would you like to leave?
Immediately, I shouted! & Jim! I called, Jim! Happy Birthday! Wake up!
IN ANNE’S PLACE
by Ted Berrigan
It’s just another April morning, St. Mark’s Place
Harris & Alice are sleeping in beds; it’s far too early
For a scientific Message, on St. Mark’s Place, though it’s
the right place if you feel so inclined. Later
Jim Carroll’s double bums a camel from a ghost Aram Saroyan
Now, there goes Clark, friend from out of a no longer existant past
Into the just barely existent future, wide-awake, purposeful
As Aram Saroyan’s dad: a little bit more lovely writing & then
Maybe a small bet on New York’s chances this morning. It’s not
Exactly love, nor is it faith, certainly it isn’t hope; no
it’s simply that one has a feeling, yes
You always do have a feeling & over the years it’s become habit
Being moved by that; to be moved having a feeling,
So it’s perfectly natural to get up & go to the telephone
to lay a little something down on your heart’s choice
calling right from where you are, in Anne’s place,
As to your heart’s delight, here comes sunlight.
POEM FOR JIM CARROLL
by Anne Waldman
journeying out to prepare the day
for a new look
stop looking
hear my identity
gibbering “mountains!”
every moment
come to life
no twilight struggle
truant or volatile
grouwing to light
bristlecones older
than mommy & daddy
touch memory
dream of me
older, slimmer
imposter, exuberant
jejune & jaunty
friend to you
vital brother