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/.]