Well, Mr. Whitman’s birthday was on Thursday the 31st, and I had vowed to continue celebrating throughout the weekend. My birthday post for my Daddy/Uncle didn’t make it online until a little after midnight in the wee hours of Friday morning, and you can check that out here.
I was thinking of bringing you another reading, or a reading by a new friend, but since I have decided that I want to do some more thorough study of Whitman here on the Dad Poet in the not too distant future, I decided it would be fun bring you a poem written not by him, but “for” him, a poem called “Supermarket in California,” by Allen Ginsberg who just so happened to have been born on this day, June 3rd, 1926. (Honestly, I didn’t plan that. I just found out and came back here to edit this almost an hour later!) This is one of those innovative presentations I spoke of before, apparently done as a poetry project by students. The voice used was Ginsberg’s.
As a side note, I was puzzled by some of the comments about the music and images. I thought they were wonderful, so I made a response of my own. You can click to watch it on YouTube if you want to see that discussion. I can be such a bull dog when responding to what I think is a bullheaded, unnecessary, or arrogant comment. That’s not really a warning, but maybe now that I’ve written it. . . 😉
Related articles
- Day 30 – 30 Days, 30 Readings: DJB Reads from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” (dadpoet.wordpress.com)
- Daddy Walt, or Uncle Walt? Happy Birthday to My Namesake (dadpoet.wordpress.com)
- Poet Walt Whitman’s Birthday is Thurs 5/31: Celebrate in Silence (onthewilderside.com)
- “Blind, loving, wrestling touch! sheath’d, hooded, sharp-tooth’d touch!” – Walt Whitman (biblioklept.org)
- Wrestling with Uncle Walt (dadpoet.wordpress.com)
- Poetry Friday: Walt Whitman and the Civil War (followingpulitzer.wordpress.com)
David J. Bauman 
Whitman’s birthday – http://ginsbergblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/walt-whitmans-birthday.html
Ginsberg’s birthday – http://ginsbergblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/allen-ginsbergs-86th-birthday.html
two recent postings on the Allen Ginsberg blog – http://ginsbergblog.blogspot.com/
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Thanks for the info, Steven. I didn’t realize that this was Ginsberg’s birthday until you posted this. I’ll be sure to check your Ginsberg blog out. Please don’t be a stranger.
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One of my favorite Ginsberg poems. I first read it when I was thirteen; it was in my mom’s American lit anthology. I could never think of WW without the line “What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman…”
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What a great story! How my Whitman learning might have been different had I started with this poem of Ginsberg’s. . .
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very cool…love that poem…ginsberg is awesome…all that beat poets were quite the revolutionaries in a way…and hey…nice to meet you…i love red wine and black coffee as well…smiles
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We’ll get along great then. I’m unwinding with a chocolate coffee martini at the moment, by the way. 🙂
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Oh, this video is delightful. It brings out the playfulness of Ginsberg’s poem that I hadn’t appreciated before. And I totally dig how the beard on the Ginsberg character looks like the pelt of a wolverine! Great fun.
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Yes! This is just what I was telling Brian! Well, not the wolverine part, but the rest, the playfulness. Just the right balance between the playful images, and the contemplative music. I thought it was very well done. In fact it made me jealous, wishing I had made it! That would be Billy Collins’ formula for knowing if something is really good; it makes you jealous. 🙂 Thanks for responding!
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A Supermaket in California will always be -I think- one of my favorites. I say this because I had an experience in a market once where I (white caucasian male and native English speaker) was in the minority. Some people become frightened when they become a minority if they are not accusomted to be ing one. But this was wonderful. I was surrounded by colorful dress, bright foods and a warmth and frisson in the people that was unmatchable. And all I could think of, apart from being joyful, was Ginsberg’s poem.
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That’s a very cool perspective. I can almost feel what you meant.
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