Gregory Corso 'Marriage' American beat poet

'Marriage' by American beat poet Gregory Corso
read by Ian Dury
http://www.ipodity.com/ RNaudioproductions

Gregory Nunzio Corso (March 26, 1930 January 17, 2001) was an American poet, youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers (with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs).

Corso's first volume of poetry The Vestal Lady on Brattle was published in 1955 (with the assistance of associates at Harvard, where he had been auditing classes). In 1958, Corso had an expanded collection of poems published as number 8 in the City Lights Pocket Poets Series: Gasoline & The Vestal Lady on Brattle. His notable poems are many: "Bomb" (a "concrete poem" formatted in typed paper slips of verse, arranged in the shape of a mushroom cloud), "Elegiac Feelings American" of the recently deceased Jack Kerouac, and "Marriage", a humorous meditation on the institution. A passage from that poem:

But I should get married I should be good
How nice it'd be to come home to her
and sit by the fireplace and she in the kitchen
aproned young and lovely wanting my baby
and so happy about me she burns the roast beef
and comes crying to me and I get up from my big papa chair
saying Christmas teeth! Radiant brains! Apple deaf!
God what a husband I'd make! Yes, I should get married!
So much to do! like sneaking into Mr Jones' house late at
night and cover his golf clubs with 1920 Norwegian books
Like hanging a picture of Rimbaud on the lawnmower
like pasting Tannu Tuva postage stamps all over the picket fence like when Mrs Kindhead comes to collect for the
Community Chest
grab her and tell her There are unfavorable omens in the sky!
And when the mayor comes to get my vote tell him
When are you going to stop people killing whales!
And when the milkman comes leave him a note in the bottle
Penguin dust, bring me penguin dust,
I want penguin dust--

Video still picture credit:
Protestant cemetery, Rome. Gregory Corso's (1930-2001) grave, next to Percy Bysshe Shelley's (1792-1822) grave. Picture by Giovanni Dall'Orto, March 31st 2008.

'Marraige' by American beat poet Gregory Corso
read by Ian Dury
http://www.ipodity.com/ RNaudioproductions

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[nordicsky]

This it is bloody brilliant. It is packed with ideas and images and I know that I shall listen to it many times. The best bit was the contrast between living in a New York tenement with a drudge wife and four screaming kids and the Manhattan penthouse with a sophisticated woman who makes cocktails. Ive just realised that for most poets there is no middle ground, only extremes. My second thought is that POETS SHOULD NEVER GET MARRIED.

Thanks for posting this,

Regards, Peter

[JustAudio2008]

I think poets do need to get married -then divorced ( more times the better )

Oh -and walk a fine line between madness and sadness -alternated with extreme happiness.

How else could their words have such power.

Maybe drink and drugs too .....

-Your poetry, is it not shaped by your life ?

Keep up your writing.

We need more poets,

All the best R.

[theolaschwi]

Lathing women is Online now rockmycity.info

[wasteland70]

@FROG6002 Did Corso say that? Sorry if I seem out of the loop.

[streamskat]

LOL i think Someone else said that first.....

[Goetia78]

I love this poem and Corso but after hearing Nunzio himself read this reading isn't even in the same ball-park...

[Foxyarse2]

Excellent

[SignifyingDonkey]

As Jerry Lee Lewis once said, "You are either hot or cold. If you are lukewarm the good Lord will spew you out of his mouth."