January 19, 2001

7:12 AM

Beat poet Gregory Corso dies at 70.
Should I get married? Should I be Good?
Astound the girl next door with my velvet suit and faustus hood?
Don't take her to movies but to cemeteries
tell all about werewolf bathtubs and forked clarinets
then desire her and kiss her and all the preliminaries
and she going just so far and I understanding why
not getting angry saying You must feel! It's beautiful to feel!
Instead take her in my arms lean against an old crooked tombstone
and woo her the entire night the constellations in the sky--
posted by dnash (16 comments total)

More about Corso, including some poems, here.
posted by dnash at 7:13 AM on January 19, 2001

"bomb" (in the dnash's link) is supposed to be layed out down the middle of a very long page, with those long lines going out like the ripples in a mushroom cloud. "Mindfield" is a great collection of his. I am sorry to see him go.
posted by bison at 7:23 AM on January 19, 2001

oh, i have seen that poem somewhere, but where? it's "should i get married? should i be good?" that really sounds familiar...
posted by bluishorange at 7:28 AM on January 19, 2001

i know where i've heard it before. troy (ethan hawke) sings those lines in a scene from "reality bites".

posted by saralovering at 7:46 AM on January 19, 2001

And the kids think they *invented* goth!
posted by kristin at 8:12 AM on January 19, 2001

I thought 45 Grave invented goth.
posted by thirteen at 8:21 AM on January 19, 2001

I thought Gotlanders invented Goth.
posted by dhartung at 8:53 AM on January 19, 2001

He was my very favorite beat poet.
posted by jennyb at 9:10 AM on January 19, 2001

I thought the Visigoths invented Goth.
posted by teradome at 9:11 AM on January 19, 2001

"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 by 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! "
posted by ericost at 9:20 AM on January 19, 2001

"My beautiful hair is dead
Now I am the rawhead"
posted by ceiriog at 9:53 AM on January 19, 2001

Bomb looks something like this.
posted by sudama at 10:22 AM on January 19, 2001

I recommend http://www.abraword.com for a first hand account of living in the Beat Hotel in Paris and some side notes about Gregory Corso. The author of this link has some fantastic stories about Paris and the Beat poets in the late fifties.
posted by annathea at 1:19 PM on January 19, 2001

Damn. Here it is again - as a link.
posted by annathea at 1:19 PM on January 19, 2001

And this appreciation in todays SF Chronicle.

I remember seeing Corso one day on the street, wheeling his son Max in a stroller and carrying a Super-8 camera. He told me he had just thrown firecrackers into the meditation hall and filmed the results.
posted by ceiriog at 2:58 PM on January 19, 2001

He was my favorite beat. I was just in SF at the City Lights Bookstore, reading his words looking at his pics.

When I was a teenager, I used to recite "Marriage" at Drama Competitions. Hell, it must be one of the greatest poems in the world, because people still dug it despite my rank-amateurish delivery. Bomb was cool too, if you wanted to show the judges that you were all socially conscious and stuff. Good Times......sigh...
posted by Optamystic at 4:01 PM on January 19, 2001