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Ginsberg for National Poetry Month

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Allen Ginsberg
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In our last installment of poems celebrating National Poetry Month, we remember an icon of the Beat Generation: Allen Ginsberg. Hear Ginsberg read his poem "Hard Labor" in 1989 at Hofstra University in New York.

"Hard Labor" by Allen Ginsberg

After midnight, Second Avenue horseradish Beef
         at Kiev's wood tables-
The Kasha Mushrooms tastes good
         as Byelorussia usta when my momma
         ran away from Cossacks 1905
Did the 5 year plan work? How bad Stalin?
Am I a Stalinist? A Capitalist? A
         Bourgeois Stinker? A rotten Red?
No I'm a fairy with purple wings and white halo
         translucent as an onion ring in
the transsexual fluorescent light of Kiev
         Restaurant after a hard day's work

  • Music Bridge:
    Bag's Groove
    Artist: Ron Carter
    CD: Dear Miles, (Blue Note)

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