Jean-Marie Gleize

Democracy

Jean-Marie Gleize

View from Montmartre hill, Paris, France. Photo by Bruno Monginoux.

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April 10, 2014

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Two of a kind (PennSound Rewind #2)

A lesson in grieving and acceptance from Allen and Louis Ginsberg

PennSound Rewind

An old man and his hippie son, both poets. — Louis and Allen Ginsberg in Miami, 1969

Two decades after memorializing his mother Naomi in “Kaddish,” we find Ginsberg working in a very different mode as he actively documents the death of his father Louis in one, or eventually, two poems with the same name. The first “Don’t Grow Old,” written around the time of Louis’ death, appeared in the collection Mind Breaths in 1978; the latter can be found in 1982’s Plutonian Ode. However the two works were envisioned by Ginsberg as one complete poem, as evidenced by a number of recordings made by Robert Creeley at the time of the second poem’s composition and the broader recorded history contained on Ginsberg’s PennSound author page. As we explore “Don’t Grow Old” (and “‘Don’t Grow Old’”), we’ll witness Ginsberg come to terms with his father through his decline, then see how latter poem reframes that experience through Louis’ reciprocal acceptance of his son’s queer identity, offering up potent lessons in mourning, as well as an important statement regarding homodomesticity and intergenerational reconciliation.