This poem is pure Allen,
Lovable and vain Allen to the end
You gotta love him–
Evidently, lots of men did
Rereading this poem
Lights my fire
“He taught me how to meditate, now I’m an old veteran of the thousand day retreat–”
“I felt more love from him at 19 than ever from anyone”
“Howl changed my life in Libertyville, Illinois”
“I saw him read Montclair State Teachers College decided to be a poet–”
Reminds me of saying on sign as you enter some Zen monasteries:
“Don’t waste your life”
Allen did (read his journals from the fifties, relentless neurosis!)
And didn’t
Thomas Merton claimed
“It’s the reality of personal relationships that saves everything”
Ah, Walt’s adhesiveness!
The way, the truth, the life!
Apropos of Merton, this from Latin American philosopher Enrique Dussel who identifies the radical principle of Christian ethics as “the face-to-face of the person-to-person relationship in the concrete, real, satisfied, happy community, in the gladness of being one with God, and one with our brothers and sisters, the members of the community …. That radical principle will operate as the light that illumines, the horizon that criticizes, the root from which we must nourish, all our subsequent ethical discourse.”