H e a r t S o n s & H e a r t D a u g h t e r s of A l l e n G i n s b e r g

N a p a l m H e a l t h S p a : R e p o r t 2 0 1 4 : A r c h i v e s E d i t i o n

SHIV MIRABITO

Insiders Outsiders for Ira Cohen

When we first met with the Kathmandu set

on a sunny day in Woodstock

You explained the joy & the pain of publishing poems

on handmade paper in Nepal in the 70’s

& You inspired me to start my Shivastan Press in Nepal in the 90’s

to continue the creative tradition You & Angus started

Bardo Matrix, Star Streams, Dream Weapon

   Spirit Catcher Book Shop

All now rare as opalescent vulture’s teeth & 1000 year old unicorn eggs

A book is a beautiful thing

You name dropped me an avant garde education

Bowles, Burroughs, Gysin, Ziprin & Corso

Midgette, Malanga & Maclise

Paul Babes, Little Ira, Ganesh Baba, Jack Smith & Penny Arcade

Vali, Debbie Harry, Chris Stein & Joey Ramone

Peter Lamborn Wilson, Louise Landes Levi, Janine Pommy Vega,

Charles Henri Ford & Indra

etc, etc, etc!

Morocco, Amsterdam, New York, Kathmandu

Italia, Ethiopia, Angkor Wat & Timbuktu too...

Now that the translucent psychedelic opium bubble

swirling on the edge of time has burst

may the purple shadow of your poetry never diminish in size

Your work will live forever in the Akashic records of eternity

Born of parents who could not speak

You never stopped speaking

or creating

or writing

& I tried to devour every golden razor tongued word

You were right when you screamed at me on the phone:

“You don’t know anything!!!”

Was the bat palace really Shangri-la?

Why did Mata-ji cry on that houseboat on the Ganga in Banaras?

Was the Bardo Matrix press really financed by the CIA

& King Birendra of Nepal?

Why did the silently smoking sadhu

hold his arm in the air for 12 years?

How many million pilgrims shit at the Kumbha Mela?

How did Paul Bowles make love to a Moroccan?

How did William Burroughs make electricity from dead cats?

Was mylar photography really inspired by butterflies wings?

Did the secret caverns below the self arisen stupa

really connect to Lhasa?

How big were the roses in Bir Singh’s garden?

What did Jack Smith’s bejeweled lair look like?

How did Vali get those tribal tattoos?

How many topless angels can dance on the head of your pen?

Has the gold dust in your squid ink finally faded?

Does the one legged blind beggar cry for you?

Is it true that “Whatever you say may be held against you”?

If Groucho Marx said you had an ethereal body

would you hold it against him?

[Originally published in NHS 2012, http://www.poetspath.com/napalm/nhs12/.]