Late at night north along a cliff at Marathon, remembering history at a distance and in retrospect, the beginning comes after the ending, GG says: The question is how to locate a character for the beginning which is sufficiently neutral so as not to prejudge the depth of involvement that comes later in the work. What’s most difficult is to erase all superfluous expression from the reading .
[Dateline 1955; 33 minutes playing time]
Bird he dyin don’ you see man were no heart attack but new moan ya don’ know nothin bout no har man no nothing bout no bird sit in uptow’n cat bir seat man got him a countess to count on and time marches on.Thirty fo year ol. Pull into Ray Kroc place des plaines ill noise headin wes’ get yo’self a hamburgfries for ten cent, davy crockon the juke Keruoac still to come be you tea full (take a toke) be a trific new jazz worl’ writin a beat generation n’ third world still to come Bandung t’gether, meanwhile smooffaced vietnamese cats starched khakis rotate through fort psilocybin twenny years of an old poet’s follies stilton come and Gordon Wasson eatin shrooms in wha-ha!-ka (Anaïs Nin on acid Harry Belafonte on television Countess Calypso manhatto eye land on you shore), bird he dying don’ you see, ever thing happen at one: weavers re you &I Pictures of the Gone World fats sing ain’t that a shame pete won’ talk before whack (Emmit Till lynched in Miz'sippi, Mickey Mouse club on teevee) Jack’s in Tenochitlan writin Meshi-city Blues an' in the zocolo Lil Richard Tutti Frutti an’ east of Eden James Dean’s dead on Hwy 101, Rebel and Giant still to come. Young poet peyote’s vision Moloch O’merica, meanwhile Jack tracks north to UC where Snyder's studying kanji zensei still to come. bird he dying (Pat Buffoon aint got no shame cover Fats with ofay marshmallow shit). Gallery Six SF howls the best minds of his generation while RCA wax Elvis and blue sway Perkins but Rosa Parks she stay seated and start Martin a long march, he long dream still to come (Xmas eve Huxley open the door to perception), Bird is thirty fi when he die, Dr. King is twenny sic year ol’ boycott, Elvis he twenny. Sixty fo thou ask question: why jonny cain read, ask a man in grey fanon soot, O maybelline why caint you be true (Catch 22), diz knee whirl open a mad zine all freed he new man (downtown Smiles of a Summer Night and the Family of Man) gun smoke in a black bo jungle, run run fast is you can' catch no ginger man, countess across the room she smile sparkle like diamon, bird he dyin, alan free on the radio playing G by the crow, countess she smilin room full perfume bird o paradise still to come
(Late at night north along Bloor Street he thinks history is heimatlos, a particular old black man who calls himself GG, heard talking to himself as they each walked along frigid Summer Street at approximately 11:07 p.m. on Feb 7, 1958 outside Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo, NY after playing the Eroica under the baton of the sentimental old Prussian, Josef Krips. Later explains to Tim Page:
“What I actually said is that most people I have met who actually did immerse themselves in the north seemed to end up, in whatever disorganized fashion, being philosophers...But I think this can be true of anybody who chooses to live in an isolated way–even in the heart of Manhattan…” )