Eric recommended I look into "Father Death Blues" by Ginsberg. It's actually a very beautiful song--(I'm always pretty harsh on Ginsberg, probably because I worshipped him in high school). Dealing with the death of his father, but wiser in its way than Dylan Thomas' angry "Do not go gentle into that good night" and sad like Ben Jonson's "On My First Sonne", and ultimately with the same existential joy (an oxymoron?) of Donne's Death, Be Not Proud (Geez, my taste in poetry reeks of high school English).
Sometimes, I have these moments of clarity about death where I'm really not scared in the least. It's this great bar we all cross, yet no one has the least certainty about. Fading nakedly into infinity and oblivion is, I don't know, not totally uninteresting. All observations seem to point to an endless cycle of birth, death, and regeneration and the present moment being a type of continuous eternity. Fuck, love, think, make, move and then get out of the way. Seriously, not a bad deal. I guess if I were to choose a style of death, it would be either very serenely or tremendously violent--mediocrity in these matters is not preferable.
Oh, and I guess I would want people to sing this song at my funeral. And receive a green burial. I'd rather moulder like Shakespeare than slowly excrete formaldehyde into the soil.
Ok, I'm creeping myself out now. Must go check pulse.
2 comments:
Just an interesting addition to this one...Ginsberg died (April 4, 1997) exactly ten years to the day after his buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa died (April 4, 1987). I guess this video takes place after 1987. I wonder when...
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