One hand stiff?heaviness of forties & menopause reduced
by one heart stroke, lame now?wrinkles?a scar on
her head, the lobotomy?ruin, the hand dipping downwards to
death?

(Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926), U.S. poet. Kaddish (l. 151). . . Allen Ginsberg: Collected Poems 1947-1980 (1984) Harper and Row.)

Moloch whose love is endless oil and stone! Moloch whose soul is
electricity and banks! Moloch whose poverty is the specter of genius!
Moloch whose fate is a cloud of sexless hydrogen! Moloch whose name is the Mind!

(Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926), U.S. poet. Howl (l. 85). . . Allen Ginsberg: Collected Poems 1947-1980 (1984) Harper and Row.)

What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked down the sidestreets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon. In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!

(Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926), U.S. poet. "A Supermarket in California," Howl and Other Poems (1956). Opening lines.)

The key is in the window, the key is in the sunlight at the
window?I have the key?Get married Allen don't take drugs?the key is in the bars, in the sunlight in the window.
Love,
your mother'

(Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926), U.S. poet. Kaddish (l. 163-165). . . Allen Ginsberg: Collected Poems 1947-1980 (1984) Harper and Row.)

The great secret is no secret
Senses fit the winds,
Visible is visible,
rain-mist curtains wave through the bearded vale,
grey atoms wet the wind's Kaballah

(Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926), U.S. poet. Wales Visitation (l. 78-82). . . Allen Ginsberg: Collected Poems 1947-1980 (1984) Harper and Row.)

My own experience is that a certain kind of genius among students is best brought out in bed.

(Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926), U.S. poet. interview, Feb. 1981, Washington Post (July 29, 1984). With Nancy Bunge at Michigan State University.)

corolla of bleary spikes pushed down and broken like a battered
crown, seeds fallen out of its face, soon-to-be- toothless mouth of
sunny air, sunrays obliterated on its hairy head like a dried wire
spiderweb,

(Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926), U.S. poet. Sunflower Sutra (l. 8). . . Allen Ginsberg: Collected Poems 1947-1980 (1984) Harper and Row.)

Groan thru breast and neck, a great Oh! to earth heart

(Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926), U.S. poet. Wales Visitation (l. 76). . . Allen Ginsberg: Collected Poems 1947-1980 (1984) Harper and Row.)

Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does.

(Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926), U.S. poet. Quoted in Barry Miles, Ginsberg: A Biography, ch. 17 (1989).)

last time I saw you was the hospital
pale skull protruding under ashen skin
blue veined unconscious girl
in an oxygen tent
the war in Spain has ended long ago
Aunt Rose

(Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926), U.S. poet. To Aunt Rose (l. 49-54). . . Allen Ginsberg: Collected Poems 1947-1980 (1984) Harper and Row.)