Poetrymind: Peter Orlovsky's Memorial September 22, 2010

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Peter Orlovsky's Memorial September 22, 2010

PHOTO: Philip Glass and Patti Smith performing Ginsberg'e poem, "On the Cremation of Chogyam Trungpa"

A You Tube variation here:

Peter Orlovsky's memorial at St. Mark's Church on September 22, 2010 brought together the extended family of Allen and Peter for a final farewell. We began the evening by meeting outside The Thirsty Scholar before making our way to Vaselka's famous Ukrainian restaurant on Second Ave for dinner and then on to the church for the memorial.

Here are some photos from the evening.

PHOTO: Anne Waldman and Family

PHOTO: Peter Hale of the Allen Ginsberg Trust who organized the event

PHOTO: Juanita Lieberman & friend outside The Thirsty Scholar

PHOTO: Gordon Ball

PHOTO: Steven Taylor

PHOTO: Shiv Mirabito & Andy Clausen

PHOTO: Ambrose Bye and Anne Waldman performing Peter's St. Francis poem

PHOTO: Miriam Sanders & Bill Morgon

PHOTO: Bev Isis and Peter Hale

PHOTO: Juanita & Ed Sanders

PHOTO: Rosebud & Bill Morgan

PHOTO: Juanita and Robert Frank

WHAT IS POETRYMIND?

Officially Poetrymind’s a Decade Old

In the Spring of 2005 while co-directing the New England College MFA Program in Poetry, I considered starting my own blog. I had been introduced to blogging through an MAT program in Information Technology I was enrolled in at Marlboro College.

I still remember sitting bolt upright one night when the word poetrymind manifested as the title. I believe I first heard this word from Russell Edson--at NEC when he read. At one point he responded to a challenge from a faculty saying something like there is only one thing that matters and that is poetrymind. Edson was a magical and deeply ironic prose poet whose work I admire. His work epitomizes for me the simple notion that things are not what they seem. Thus, the phenomenal world is infused with magic and the mystery of discovery with ever fresh eyes.

For me poetrymind is synonymous with “First Thought, Best Thought,” which is to say, thought that represents a state of mind free from conceptual overlays of judgment and second guessing. Rather it is elegant thought borne from pure perception, the original thought before attaching judgement. The slogan, "First Thought, Best Thought", coined by the late Chogyam Trungpa and Allen Ginsberg at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics is not about writing without revision, as some believe. It is about experience first hand--direct and pure without a lot of egotistic filters or projections.

I am reminded of what the great Zen master, Susuki Roshi called “Beginner’s Mind” --- every moment offers a “fresh” experience. The ground is open vast mind or as Pema Chodron aptly puts it—The sky is open mind and everything else is the weather. Words are the display of poetrymind –alive with potentiality. Words in this context can become a vehicle for discovery of who we are.

See No Blood for Hubris on Russell Edson