January 17th marks the 20th anniversary of the death of Beat legend Gregory Corso. While the loss of any poet is a tragedy, one feels especially sorry for Corso, who had finally attained some modicum of hard-fought peace and closure in his final years, leaving behind the traumas that had marked his childhood and reuniting with his mother after decades of separation (as detailed in the late Gustave Reininger's criminally neglected documentary, Corso: The Last Beat).
We launched our Gregory Corso author page in June 2017, with assistance from Raymond Foye. There, you'll find five full readings plus one individual poem recorded between the 1970s and 1990s. The earliest recording is an April 1971 reading at Duke University, which is followed by an August 1985 appearance at the San Francisco Art Institute as part of their "Art of Poetry" series. Jumping forward to the 90s, there's a March 1991 Brooklyn College reading notable for the appearance of Corso's iconic late poem "The Whole Mess ... Almost" and for the half-hour candid conversation recorded in the car on the way home. From December 1992, there's a stellar reading in New York City also featuring Herbert Huncke, John Wieners, and Allen Ginsberg, and finally, from March 1993, we have a half-hour reading from Rutgers University including "I Met This Guy Who Died," "Earliest Memory," "Youthful Religious Experiences," and "Friends," among other poems.
Ginsberg famously offered high praise for his dear friend, calling him "a poet's Poet, his verse pure velvet, close to John Keats for our time, exquisitely delicate in manners of the Muse," who "has been and always will be a popular poet, awakener of youth, puzzlement & pleasure for sophisticated elder bibliophiles." He continues, judging Corso as "'Immortal' as immortal is, Captain Poetry exampling revolution of Spirit, his 'poetry the opposite of hypocrisy,' a loner, laughably unlaurelled by native prizes, divine Poet Maudit, rascal poet Villonesque and Rimbaudian whose wild fame's extended for decades around the world from France to China, World poet." Per his request, and with the help of donations from his fans worldwide (I still remember the call for funds and might have sent in $5), Corso's ashes were interred in Rome's Cimitero Acattolico right next to the grave of his greatest poetic hero, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and in close proximity to Keats. His tombstone bears his poem "Spirit," written as his epitaph during his lifetime. While that poem — and many more — are on my mind today, the one that seems like the most appropriate tribute is another classic Corso poem addressing mortality that includes a good dose of his trademark humor, "How Not to Die." We have a great recording of Corso reading it at that 1993 Rutgers reading [MP3] and here's the poem in its entirety:
How Not To DieAround peopleif I feel I'm gonna dieI excuse myselftelling them "I gotta go!""Go where?" they wanna knowI don't answerI just get outa thereaway from thembecause somehowthey sense something wrongand never know what to doit scares them such suddennessHow awfulto just sit thereand they asking:"Are you okay?""Can we get you something?""Want to lie down?"Ye gods! people!who wants to die amongst people?!Especially when they can't do shitTo the movies — to the moviesthat's where I hurry towhen I feel I'm going to dieSo far it's worked
Click here to start browsing the recordings collected on PennSound's Gregory Corso author page.
