Need a Poem?

A Supermarket in Calinfornia

allen ginsberg

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 neonfruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations! What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!--and you, García Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons? I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber, pokingamong the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys. I heard you asking questions of each: Who killed the pork chops? What price bananas? Are you my Angel? I wandered in and out of the brilliant stacks of cans following you,and followed in my imagination by the store detective. We strode down the open corridors together in our solitary fancy tasting artichokes, possessing every frozen delicacy, and never passing the cashier. Where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors close in a hour.Which way does your beard point tonight? (I touch your book and dream of our odyssey in the supermarket andfeel absurd.) Will we walk all night through solitary streets? The trees add shadeto shade, lights out in the houses, we'll both be lonely. Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past blue automo-biles in driveways, home to our silent cottage? Ah, dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher, what Americadid you have when Charon quit poling his ferry and you got out on a smoking bank and stood watching the boat disappear on the black waters ofLethe?

Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community

I just picked up Wenell Berry's book of essays Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community and my mind is already realing. Berry is an amazing critic and sage of American Culutre. There are so many helpful insights into our overstuffed culture and economy; he is always reminding us of the importance of simplicity. Here are some quotes:

Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do”

Novelty is a new kind of loneliness.

The most alarming sign of the state of our society now is that our leaders have the courage to sacrifice the lives of young people in war, but have not the courage to tell us that we must be less greedy and less wasteful.

I Pledge Allegiance

The idea of pledging allegiance to the American flag in church has bothered me for a long time. This fourth of July our Church had a 4th of July service (America worship); as I'm sure many other churches did also. During "Its a Grand Ol' Flag" a lady stood up and began waving her hands with closed eyes and face lifted upwards. Something is seriously wrong. Dont get me wrong, I love my country-I have a degree in its 19th century poetry- but I will not pledge my allegiance to a political party or a country in hopes that God might look more favorably on me because of that. I worship a king, in a kingdom, not a president in a free-market capitalist democracy.