Snail Poem, Ninth Anniversary of Peter Orlovsky’s Death

Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky

A rainbow comes pouring into my window, I am electrified.
Songs burst from my breast, all my crying stops, mistory fills
the air.
I look for my shues under my bed.

Peter Orlovsky, excerpt from Frist Poem

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I was going through notes and realized that Peter Orlovsky died nine years ago this Thursday past. Born in the East Side of New York on July 8, 1933, he was probably best known as poet Allen Ginsberg’s companion. However, Orlovsky was a poet himself. You’ll note, if you’ve not been introduced to him before, that he is playful and his spelling eccentric…..

Snail Poem

Make my grave shape of heart so like a flower
…..be free aired
…..& handsome felt,
Grave root pillow, tung up from grave and
…..wiggle at
…..blown up clowd
Ear turns close to underlayer of green felt moss & sound
…..or rain dribble thru this layer
…..down to the roots that will tickle my ear
Hay grave, my toes need cutting so file away
…..in sound curve or
Garbage grave, way above my head, blood will soon
…..tickle in my ear –
no choise but the grave, so cat & sheep are daisey
…..turned.
Train will tug my grave, my breath hueing gentil vapor
…..between weel & track.
So kitten string & ball, jumpe over this mound so
…..gently & cutely
So my toe can curl & become a snail & go curiousely
…..on its way

– Peter Orlovsky (New York City, 1958,from Clean Asshole Poems & Smiling Vegetable Songs), © Estate of Peter Orlovsky

Photo credit ~ Herbert Rusche under CC SA 3.0 license

A homebound writer, poet, and former columnist and associate editor of a regional employment newspaper, my work has been featured widely in print and digital publications including: Ramingo’s Porch, Vita Brevis Literature, Connotation Press, The Bar None Group, Salamander Cove, I Am Not a Silent Poet, The Compass Rose and California Woman. I run The Poet by Day, an info hub for poets and writers and am the founding/managing editor of The BeZine.

“Every pair of eyes facing you has probably experienced something you could not endure.”  Lucille Clifton