Renowned poet and Tricycle contributor Allen Ginsberg passed away 16 years ago today. He used to sing this song he’d written called “Gospel Noble Truths” in this wobbly but painfully sincere voice. His delivery was earnest but freeing. Only Ginsberg could convey such devastating truths imbued with a freeing quality that gives you immeasurable courage.
When Ginsberg described himself as a “flaky Buddhist” who doesn’t meditate that much, he might have been being honest but he surely wasn’t giving himself much credit. By my own estimation, Ginsberg led a life and death more aligned with the bodhisattva vows than most, who end up all tangled up in their malas. He himself recognized that he had a mind so refined that no idea—I would say Buddhist or otherwise—could violate it.
“Allen was a wonderful person—kind, caring, open, and straightforward,” Gelek Rinpoche said of his student in a Tricycle interview from 2003. “He had no hidden agenda whatsoever. Not selfish at all.” After Ginsberg got news of his incurable cancer, Gelek Rinpoche said, “he began the celebration of his death. Compassion was the principle of his life, without his using the word compassion, and all of his life was totally dedicated to positive causes.”
To close I’ll leave you with Ginsberg’s poem that he wrote for his own funeral, spoken to Gelek Rinpoche over the phone and recited by Bob Rosenthal at the funeral.
The wan moon is sinking under the white wave and time is sinking with me, O!
—Robert Burns
yes it’s gone gone gone
gone gone away
yes it’s gone gone gone
gone gone away
yes it’s gone gone gone
gone gone away
yes it’s gone gone gone
it’s all gone away
gone gone gone
won’t be back today
gone gone gone
just like yesterday
gone gone gone
isn’t any more
gone to the other shore
gone gone gone
it wasn’t here to stay
yes it’s gone gone gone
all gone out to play
yes it’s gone gone gone
until another day
no one here to pray
gone gone gone
yak your life away
no promise to betray
gone gone gone
somebody else will pay
the national debt no way
gone gone gone
your furniture layaway
plan gone astray
gone gone gone
made hay
gone gone gone
Sunk in Baiae’s Bay
yes it’s gone gone gone
wallet and all you say
gone gone gone
so you can waive your pay
yes it’s gone gone gone
tomorrow’s another day
gone last Saturday
yes it’s gone gone gone
gone gone gone
turned old and gray
yes it’s gone gone gone
bald & old & gay
gone gone gone
whitebeard & cold
yes it’s gone gone gone
cashmere scarf & gold
yes it’s gone gone gone
warp & woof & wold
yes it’s gone gone gone
gone far far away
to the home of the brave
down into the grave
yes it’s gone gone gone
moon beneath the wave
yes it’s gone gone gone
so I end this song
yes this song is gone
gone to kick the gong
yes it’s gone gone gone
No more right & wrong
yes it’s gone gone gone
gone gone away