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BLOG When Allen Ginsberg came to Halifax By Martin Wallace | October 26, 2015 Editor’s Note: Continuing through November 8, the Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery is hosting the exhibition “We are continually exposed to the flashbulb of death”: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg (1953-1996). Inspired by the exhibition, local writer Martin Wallace shares these memories of an Allen Ginsberg visit to Halifax. I was a young poet in 1986 when I heard that Allen Ginsberg was coming to Halifax. The When Allen Ginsberg came to Halifax | Halifax Magazine http://halifaxmag.com/blog/when-allen-ginsberg-came-to-halifax/ 1 of 5 15-11-04 2:40 PM

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Page 1: When Allen Ginsberg came to Halifax | Halifax Magazine · Photographs of Allen Ginsberg (1953-1996). Inspired by the exhibition, local writer Martin Wallace shares these memories

BLOG

When Allen Ginsberg came toHalifaxBy Martin Wallace | October 26, 2015

Editor’s Note: Continuing through November 8, the Mount Saint Vincent University Art

Gallery is hosting the exhibition “We are continually exposed to the flashbulb of death”: The

Photographs of Allen Ginsberg (1953-1996). Inspired by the exhibition, local writer Martin

Wallace shares these memories of an Allen Ginsberg visit to Halifax.

I was a young poet in 1986 when I heard that Allen Ginsberg was coming to Halifax. The

When Allen Ginsberg came to Halifax | Halifax Magazine http://halifaxmag.com/blog/when-allen-ginsberg-came-to-halifax/

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Page 2: When Allen Ginsberg came to Halifax | Halifax Magazine · Photographs of Allen Ginsberg (1953-1996). Inspired by the exhibition, local writer Martin Wallace shares these memories

news seemed unbelievable. Ginsberg was a “name,” a frequently mentioned figure in poetry

books and literary histories, arguably most famous of the Beats, friend (and lover) of William

Burroughs, mentor to Bob Dylan, artistic collaborator with The Clash.

It wasn’t so much that I couldn’t imagine Ginsberg coming here—he was, after all, a

long-time follower of Buddhist teacher Trungpa Rinpoche, who had established Halifax as

the center of his teachings—it was more that, in my naiveté and optimism, I expected there to

be more fanfare and excitement. I mean, this was the guy! This was the author of Howl, that

crazy exuberant chant of sorrow and celebration, of drugs and prophecy, of angels and

jubilant sex. Ginsberg’s reading of Howl in San Francisco in 1955 was legendary, and a

symbol of that generation’s rejection of the mannered, intellectual thing that poetry had

become under the Moderns. To young poets, Ginsberg was a rock star.

The visit started with a poetry workshop at the Shambhala Center on Tower Road. We sat on

cushions in appropriately meditative poses for several minutes until Ginsberg arrived,

slipping quietly into the room with some other people. This Ginsberg—bald, myopic, paunchy

—seemed a far cry from the legendary figure, clad as he was in his now standard costume of

blue blazer, gray flannel pants and red tie. He was quiet and unassuming, occasionally

seeming to mumble, his most constant expression a shy smile.

He read some of his own work. The poem I remember most vividly was about social

awkwardness, snot, and well, what would today be called “Santorum.” He looked up after

this and shrugged and said “See? It’s just stuff that you remember.”

He then asked us to write a poem with a single image. Being young and determined to

When Allen Ginsberg came to Halifax | Halifax Magazine http://halifaxmag.com/blog/when-allen-ginsberg-came-to-halifax/

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Page 3: When Allen Ginsberg came to Halifax | Halifax Magazine · Photographs of Allen Ginsberg (1953-1996). Inspired by the exhibition, local writer Martin Wallace shares these memories

impress, I wrote some “political” lines about “factories torturing the landscape.” I don’t recall

him responding in particular to my work during the workshop, but afterwards I was in a

small group talking to him about poetics. He spoke of memory, of specificity and precision in

writing (“Don’t say ‘I walked down the street,” say ‘I walked down Barrington Street.’”) He

said what was the important thing was to think about the truth of what you were describing

and not to impose your own will on it, “or else,” and here he turned to me with a shy

apologetic smile, “we end up with ‘factories torturing the landscape.’”

Ouch.

Later that evening, at a venue on Gottingen, accompanying himself on a small

hand-accordion, Ginsberg chanted loudly about politics and sex and drugs. Here, in this

older man, was still that power of performance and rebellion.

Ginsberg is gone now, but I still have (of course!) my autographed copy of Howl and this

memory (there’s that word again). My meeting with Ginsberg, however, was not as intimate

as that of a friend of mine, who attended a party after the performance. As he told me the

next day, with a mixture of amusement, bewilderment and awe, “I met Allen Ginsberg….He

kissed me on the lips.”

CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of those post gave an incorrect

closing date for the Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery exhibition. The post above

has been corrected. Halifax Magazine regrets the error.

When Allen Ginsberg came to Halifax | Halifax Magazine http://halifaxmag.com/blog/when-allen-ginsberg-came-to-halifax/

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Page 4: When Allen Ginsberg came to Halifax | Halifax Magazine · Photographs of Allen Ginsberg (1953-1996). Inspired by the exhibition, local writer Martin Wallace shares these memories

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