644 NKVD: People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs—Soviet secret police.
644 OGPU: 1930s Russian secret police.
644 DIA: U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.
644 KGB: Soviet Committee of State Security, equivalent to U.S. FBI, but worse.
Come All Ye Brave Boys
645 LIDS: Lid, a quantity of marijuana, equivalent to an ounce, originally a Prince Albert tobacco can full.
Gospel Noble Truths
649 YOU GOT TO SUFFER: First stanza refers to Buddhist doctrine of three “marks” or characteristics of existence: (1) suffering, (2) change, (3) Anatma (no permanent selfhood). Stanzas 1–3 refer to the Four Noble Truths of Buddhist philosophy: (1) Existence contains suffering; (2) Suffering is caused by ignorance; (3) Ignorance can be changed by practice of detachment, wisdom and compassion (4) and by following an eightfold path as paraphrased in song lines 13–20: (1) right views, (2) right aspiration, (3) right speech, (4) right activity, (5) right labor, (6) right energy, (7) right mindfulness, (8) right meditation. There follows brief instruction for sitting and review of six sense fields.
Rolling Thunder Stones
652 WE GIVE THANKS FOR THIS FOOD …: After Snyder/Whalen adaptation of Zen thanks offering for food.
Two Dreams
656 ACID TIDE: Nitrous waste pollution of Jersey-Manhattan waters. A 1966 Los Angeles Free Press Robert Cobb cartoon showed ocean of LSD washing away a pillared fortress-island of Law, God, Self, Good, Evil, etc., seen somewhat as Urizenic Blakean abstractions.
Don’t Grow Old
664 AUNT ROSE: See “To Aunt Rose,” Paris, 1958.
664 NAROPA: Naropa Institute, contemplative college founded 1974 by Chögyam Trungpa; named for Kagyu lineage second patriarch, once rector of eighth-century Buddhist Nalanda International University. Naropa’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, codirected by author and Anne Waldman, was founded same year.
Contest of Bards
673 ETERNAL RUNE CUT IN STONE: Rune (Old Norse), character of Old Teutonic or Scandinavian alphabets; magical cipher.
685 EIDOLON: Platonic Image. See Whitman’s poem “Eidolons.”
Punk Rock Your My Big Crybaby
691 MABUHAY GARDENS TO CBGB ’ S: Punk rock/new wave youth clubs, on San Francisco’s North Beach and New York’s Bowery.
X
PLUTONIAN ODE
(1977–1980)
Grim Skeleton
699 RICHARD HELMS: See “Ego Confession” note.
Adapted from Neruda’s “Que dispierte el leñador”
704 QUE DISPIERTE: Adapted Summer 1978-Spring 1981 by Sidney Goldfarb and Allen Ginsberg from Waldeen’s trans. of Let The Railsplitter Awake and Other Poems, by Pablo Neruda (New York: Masses and Mainstream, 1950).
Nagasaki Days
707 ELLSBERG: Daniel Ellsberg (b. 1931) Author, revealer of the “Pentagon Papers,” now-public “secret” Defense Department analysis of built-in futility of U.S. Vietnam War adventure, had also helped design nuclear-strategy practical mechanics, including the failsafe system. The author and scholar Ellsberg were arrested together in Colorado during anti-nuclear peace protest at Rockwell Corporation’s Rocky Flats plutonium-bomb-trigger factory.
708 GOLDEN COURTHOUSE: See Kerouac’s verse “I wanna go to Golden,” i.e., Golden, Colorado, Jefferson county seat, where Rocky Flats anti-nuclear-weapons-manufacture demonstrators were tried.
Plutonian Ode
710 WHITMAN: Walt Whitman.
710 DOCTOR SEABORG: Glenn Seaborg, “Discoverer of Plutonium.”
710 SEA BEYOND URANUS: Pluto, past planets Uranus and Neptune.
710 AVENGING FURIES: Pluto was father to Eumenides, the Furies who return to avenge mindless damage done in passion, aggression, ignorance, etc. Pluto was also Lord of Wealth.
710 DEMETER: Pluto’s mother-in-law, the Earth fertility goddess whose daughter Persephone was stolen for marriage by underworld lord Pluto (Greek: Hades [Aides], brother to Zeus and Poseidon) and kept in his caverns a half year at a time, released to her mother each spring. Demeter gave wheat to man at Eleusis, site of her temple, one place in ancient world where Hades also was acknowledged with ceremonies indicated above.
Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky and friends of Rocky Flats Truth Force, meditating on R.R. Tracks outside Rockwell Corporation Nuclear Facility’s Plutonium bomb trigger factory, Colorado, halting trainload of waste fissile materials on the day Plutonium Ode was completed, July 14, 1978. Photo by Steve Groer, Rocky Mountain News.
710 ASPHODEL: W. C. Williams wrote of asphodel, “that greeny flower,” as the blossom of Hades.
710 FISH … RAM … BULL … TWINS … CRAB … LION: Ages of Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo—2,000 years each age.
710 GREAT YEAR: Platonic, or Babylonian, or Sidereal “Great Year”—24,000 years—half life of Plutonium radioactivity. This fact, pointed out to me by Gregory Corso, inspired this poem. Cf. W. B. Yeats, A Vision.
710 ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-SEVEN THOUSAND: The 24,000-year span of the Great Year—167,000 cycles—4 billion years, supposed age of Earth.
710 BLACK … DISILLUSION: Six senses, including mind.
710 SABAOT … IALDABAOTH: Archons of successive aeons born of Sophia’s thought, according to Ophitic and Barbelo-Gnostic myths.
710 SKY OVER SILENT MILLS AT HANFORD … MASON: Plutonium factories, whose location by state and whose function in bomb-making are here described. Plants in Pantex, Texas, and Burlington, Iowa, managed by Mason & Hanger-Silas Mason Co., Inc., assemble the finished components of the nuclear weapons.
711 TWO HUNDRED FORTY MILLENNIA: 240,000 years the supposed time till Plutonium becomes physically inert.
711 TEN POUNDS: Ten pounds of Plutonium scattered throughout the earth is calculated sufficient to kill 4 billion people.
711 SIX WORLDS: Six worlds of Gods, Warrior Demons, Humans, Hungry Ghosts, Animals, and Hell Beings held together in the delusion of time by pride, anger and ignorance: a Buddhist concept. See notes to “Thoughts Sitting Breathing,” p. 796.
711 DIVINE WIND: Kamikaze, typhoon, wind of Gods.
711 THREE HUNDRED TO NS: 300 tons of Plutonium, estimate circa 1978 of the amount produced for American bombs.
711 I SING YOUR FORM: “The Reactor hath hid himself thro envy. I behold him. But you cannot behold him till he be revealed in his System.”—Blake, Jerusalem, Chap. II, Plate 43, lines 9–10.
712 HONEY … WATER: Traditional libation to Hades poured at Temple of Eleusis, and by Odysseus at the Necromanteion at Acheron.
712 DIAMOND TRUTH: Reference to Buddhist doctrine of Sunyataa, i.e., existence as simultaneously void and solid, empty and real, all-penetrating egoless (empty void) nature symbolized by adamantine Vajra or Diamond Sceptre.
712 FIVE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLAR: Estimated world military budget; 116 billion, U.S. share, October 1978.
713 TAKE THIS INHALATION … THOUGHT-WORLDS: Four characteristics of Buddha-nature activity: to pacify, enrich, magnetize & destroy.
713 GONE OUT … AH!: Americanese approximation and paraphrase of Sanskrit Prajnaparamita (Highest Perfect Wisdom) Mantra: Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha.
Blame the Thought, Cling to the Bummer
717 DUDJOM LINEAGE: Dudjom Rinpoche, contemporary head of Nyingma “old school” Tibetan teachings founded by Padmasambhava.
717 BEDROCK MORTAR …: Cottage built by author and friends in California Sierra woods adjoining Kitkitdizze, at site of original Indian inhabitants’ mortar holes. See “Sad Dust Glories” note.
“Don’t Grow Old”
718 DON’T GROW OLD: See poems on the death of Louis Ginsberg, January 12-July 11, 1976.
December 31, 1978
724 LINDY HOP: Peculiar quick dance step popular late 1920s.
Brooklyn College Brain
725 BODHICITTA: Seed of enlightenment stuff, enlightened essence of Buddha mind, or awakening aspect of mind.
Garden State
727 HARRISBURG HYDROGEN BUBBLE: In Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear accident, March 28, 1979, unit #2’s reactor core was badly damaged. A pressure relief valve in the main cooling system had jammed while the reactor was operating at full power. Thousands of gallons of water unexpectedly drained from the core. At this pass, operators mistakenly turned off pumps designed to flood the reactor in such emergency. Consequent overheating resulted in damage to the reactor, and release of radiation.
Las Vegas: Verses Improvised for El Dorado H.S. Newspaper
728 MOAPA: Original nomadic inhabitants of Nevada.
728 ROBERT MAHEU: (b. 1917) Secretary to Howard Hughes, ex-FBI, introduced Sam Giancana and John Roselli (business acquaintances of Tampa syndicate boss Santos Trafficante, co-worker with Jack Ruby, and pre-Castro vice/narcotic lord of Havana territory) to CIA official Sheffield Edwards, to arrange assassination of Cuban premier Castro. Personages of Watergate plumbers team were associated with the much-reported yet little-researched anti-Castro Cuban Mafia circle of secret operations. See “Hadda Be Playing on the Jukebox” note.
(Sheffield Edwards was also CIA Chief of Security, which office oversaw early 1950s drug experiment programs, psychedelic and otherwise.)
728 MT. CHARLESTON: Sacred mountain among Moapa tribes in traditional migratory cycle.
728 ENGLEBERT: Mr. Humperdinck, popular cabaret entertainer.
728 PLATONIC YEAR: See “Plutonian Ode” note.
728 UNDER THE ASTRONOMICAL FLAGP OLE: Harold Ickes, interior secretary under FDR, commissioned various solar system designs, including the Great Year pattern of earth’s wobble on its sidereal axis, to be set in bronze on Hoover Dam’s plaza, marking the monumental size of the project, equal in scope to the Egyptian pyramids.
728 BUGSY SIEGEL: Original organized crime/vice chief of Las Vegas, assassinated by shots through window of Beverly Hills living room, 1947.
Ruhr-Gebiet
734 STAMMHEIM: Isolation prison where “terrorist” Baader-Meinhof gang members (originally armed by police double agents) were subject to continuous interrogation under 24-hour glare lighting.
735 “GUESTS” DO THE WORK: Gastarbeiter, “guest workers” of post-WWII West Germany: Turks, Italians, Slavs imported for heavy labor or menial work.
Reflections at Lake Louise
741 ORYOKI: Traditional style of formal three-bowl mindful silent eating practice in Zendoo (meditation hall).
Ode to Failure
745 MAYAKOVSKY CRIED, THEN DIE! MY VERSE: “Let glory/disconsolate widow frail/trudge after genius/in funeral anthems/Die, my verse,/die, like the rank and file/as our unknown, unnumbered, fell/in storming heaven.”—Vladimir Mayakovsky, “At the Top of My Voice,” 1930, in Mayakovsky and His Poetry, trans. Herbert Marshall (London: Pilot Press, 1943). Frank O’Hara first called author’s attention to this poem.
Birdbrain!
746 XOCHOPILI: Formerly referred to as “God of Flowers” in tourist guidebooks. Vegetable forms incised on his celebrated statue in Mexico City’s Archaeological Museum have been identified by Harvard Botanical Museum director Richard E. Schultes as peyote, morning glory, amanita mushroom, tobacco, etc. Evidence of Xochopili culture was obliterated during Spanish conquest.
746 RAN GERMANY ON AMPHETAMINES: Among other books, Inside the Third Reich, memoirs of Albert Speer (New York: Macmillan, 1970), gives evidence on Hitler’s rug-chewing speed addiction.
“Defending the Faith”
750 MAGLIC CASTLE: Castle of “mist” or “fog” (maglic) at heart of original kingdom of Serbia.
750 IVAR RIVER BANK: (12th-century “Ras”) In Ivar River Valley, “Valley of the Kings.” “Where the valley narrows to form a dramatic gorge … stand the remains of the Magli’c fortress perched like an eagle’s nest upon a separate spur of the mountains” (Fodor’s Yugoslavia, 1972, p. 277).
* Notes for “Angkor Wat” from Fulcrum Press edition (London, 1968).
Epigraphs from Original Editions
‘Unscrew the locks from the doors!
Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!’ (Howl)
‘—Die,
If thou wouldst be with that which thou dost seek!’ (Kaddish)
‘Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for yr own joy’ (Reality Sandwiches)
‘O go way man I can
hypnotize this nation
I can shake the earth’s foundation
with the Maple Leaf Rag.’ (Planet News)
‘To find the Western path
Right thro’ the Gates of Wrath
I urge my way;
Sweet Mercy leads me on:
With soft Repentant moan
I see the break of day’ (Gates of Wrath)
‘Thus is the heaven a vortex pass’d already, and the earth
A vortex not yet pass’d by the traveller thro’ Eternity’ (Gates of Wrath)
‘The yearning infinite recoils,
For terrible is earth!’ (Gates of Wrath)
‘… same electric lightning South
follows this train
Apocalypse prophesied—
the fall of America
signalled from Heaven—’ (The Fall of America)
‘Time after time for such a journey none but iron pens
Can write And adamantine leaves receive nor can the man who goes
The journey obstinate refuse to write time after time’ (Mind Breaths)
‘Meeting, the two friends laugh aloud;
In the grove, fallen leaves are many’ (Poems All Over the Place)
‘La science, la nouvelle noblesse! Le progrès. Le monde marche! Pourquoi ne tournerait-il pas?’ (Plutonian Ode)
Dedications to
Jack Kerouac, new Buddha of American prose, who spit forth intelligence into eleven books written in half the number of years (1951–1956)—On the Road, Visions of Neal, Dr Sax, Springtime Mary, The Subterraneans, San Francisco Blues, Some of the Dharma, Book of Dreams, Wake Up, Mexico City Blues, and Visions of Gerard—creating a spontaneous bop prosody and original classic literature. Several phrases and the title of Howl are taken from him.
William Seward Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch, an endless novel which will drive everybody mad.
Neal Cassady, author of The First Third, an autobiography (1949) which enlightened Buddha.
All these books are published in Heaven.
HOWL
Peter Orlovsky
in
Paradise
‘Taste my mouth in your ear’
KADDISH
To Herbert E. Huncke
for his Confessions
EMPTY MIRROR
the Pure Imaginary
POET
Gregory Corso
REALITY SANDWICHES
Neal Cassady
again
Spirit to Spirit
February 8, 1925-February 4, 1968
‘the greater driver’
‘secret hero of these poems’
PLANET NEWS
dear
poet’s poet
Philip Whalen
AIRPLANE DREAMS
Miles
London’s Scholar
ANGKOR WAT
The Soul of
Leroi Jones
SCRAP LEAVES
Larry Ferlinghetti
Fellow
Poet
Editor
POEMS ALL OVER THE PLACE
Walt Whitman
“Intense and loving comradeship, the personal and passionate attachment of man to man—which, hard to define, underlies the lessons and ideals of the profound saviors of every land and age, and which seems to promise, when thoroughly develop’d, cultivated and recognised in manners and literature, the most substantial hope and safety of the future of these States, will then be fully express’d.
“It is to the development, identification, and general prevalence of that fervid comradeship, (the adhesive love, at least rivaling the amative love hitherto possessi
ng imaginative literature, if not going beyond it,) that I look for the counterbalance and offset of our materialistic and vulgar American democracy, and for the spiritualization thereof. Many will say it is a dream, and will not follow my inferences: but I confidently expect a time when there will be seen, running like a half-hid warp through all the myriad audible and visible worldly interests of America, threads of manly friendship, fond and loving, pure and sweet, strong and life-long, carried to degrees hitherto unknown—not only giving tone to individual character, and making it unprecedentedly emotional, muscular, heroic, and refined, but having the deepest relations to general politics. I say democracy infers such loving comradeship, as its most inevitable twin or counterpart, without which it will be incomplete, in vain, and incapable of perpetuating itself.”