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“Spring green buddings, white blossom-
ing trees, Mayday picnic
O Maypole Kings O Krishnaic Spring-
time
O holy Yale Panther Pacifist Conscious
populace awake alert sensitive ten-
der
children’s bodies–a ring of
quiet Armies round the town–
planet students cooking brown rice
for scared multitudes–
Oh Souls all springtime prays your
bodies
quietly pass mantiric peace Fest
grass freedom thru our nation
thru your holy voices’ prayers
your bodies here xx so tender & so
wounded with Fear
Metal gas fear, the same fear
Whales tremble war conscious-
ness
Smog City–Riot court paranoia–
Judge, tremble, Armies weep
your fear–
O President guard thy sanity
Attourneys General & Courts obey
the Law
and end your violent War Assemblage
O Legislatures pass your Creeds of
order
& end by proper law illegal war!
Now man sits Acme Conscious over
his gas machine covered Planet–
Springtime’s on, for all your sacred
& Satanic Magic!
Ponds gleam heaven, Black voices
chant their ecstasy on car radio
Oh who has heard the scream of death
in Jail?
Who has heard the quiet Om under
wheel-whine and drumbeat
outside railyards on wire tower’d
outroads from New Haven?”
-Excerpt and images courtesy of Yale University, Yale University Library, Manuscripts and Archives, “May King’s Prophecy,” a poem by Allen Ginsberg, May 1, 1970. (top and below) Images courtesy of Boston Rare Maps, “A rare relic of the 1970 New Haven May Day protest, New Haven: View from the Bottom, Yale Strike News, and Committee to Defend the Panthers,” 1970

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The Ginsbergs Have a Duel

“Louis and Allen Ginsberg, a generation apart but very together on some issues, displayed what they called their peaceful poetic coexistence Tuesday night at Paterson State College.

After hearing them both read poetry, the differences between father and son all seemed superficial.

Louis wore the symbols of his older generation — a blue business suit, a white shirt and short hair. Allen was the opposite, his thinning black hair falling to his shoulders and his bushy beard brushing his chest.

Yet both Ginsbergs had on black armbands to protest the American invasion of Cambodia and the shooting to death of four Kent State University students by National Guardsmen on Monday.

And when the poetry reading was over they embraced each other. ‘We clash on nearly every subject,’ Louis explained earlier, ‘but we respect the validity of each other’s art.’ …

Prior to the reading, Allen explained how he was tear-gassed in New Haven last week while attending the weekend rally in support of Black Panther Bobby Seale. Ginsberg said he used breathing exercises rendering the tear gas ineffective against him.”
-Excerpt courtesy of Newspapers.com, The News (Paterson, New Jersey), “The Ginsbergs Have a ‘Duel’ at PSC,” May 6, 1970

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