When I introduced my date, he said, "I'd like ta shove a rose in ya, without the thorns... Hey, that's pretty poetic, eh?" Then he laughed maniacally & gave her a bear hug in his overcoat.
Gary Shilling, From May 29, 1992, in front of CBGB, in the Bowery, New York City.
Anne Waldman's Stellar Example
Gregory Corso invaded my shower one day in the little Townhouse apartment I return to in dreams as “Remember Some Apartments”. It was named “Emerson Apartments”. Ralph Waldo Emerson had always been an inspiration for my memory of this place although he would not have appreciated the commune spirit. Gregory was always barging in, rooting around looking for valium or anything palliative and high-making, gesticulating , checking out my books –did I have any art books? – and would I ever be as good as Jane Austen? So there was that, the sense of invasion.
I was soaping my hair with lavender shampoo. We decided we would probably never sleep together. That was a good idea because he was so complicated to think about sleeping with. I mean it wasn’t even an issue or much of a discussion. I was not going to get my transmissions from Beat poets, I proclaimed, by sleeping with them! I said would you be my pal? And will you behave? He hugged me as we were water rats together in the shower.
(This was 1975, Boulder, Colorado during a summer session of
The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University)
Anne Waldman
I was soaping my hair with lavender shampoo. We decided we would probably never sleep together. That was a good idea because he was so complicated to think about sleeping with. I mean it wasn’t even an issue or much of a discussion. I was not going to get my transmissions from Beat poets, I proclaimed, by sleeping with them! I said would you be my pal? And will you behave? He hugged me as we were water rats together in the shower.
(This was 1975, Boulder, Colorado during a summer session of
The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University)
Anne Waldman
Corso In Lowell Grotto
He's asking Christ to come down and chat.
HOW TO CONTRIBUTE
This is a crowd-sourced online biography of Gregory Corso. I started the project a few years ago. I put it online(March 2010) so anybody can contribute. I already have Anne Waldman, Gerald Nicosia, and about fifty others: including girlfriends, poets, and people who just saw him once at a party in Italy. It will take some time to download all the work I've already received.
The idea is that you write an anecdote — each anecdote should be like a party anecdote, something good enough to hold the attention of a room full of strangers (Corso appreciators) briefly. And it should be dated (when it happened), and the place (where it happened) specified. The model is John Aubrey's BRIEF LIVES -- scintillating well-written peeks.
Corso's first book was published by a group of kids at Harvard, and he was buried by subscription, so I think it’s good to get his biography going through crowd-sourcing.
I’d especially like to get people who knew him as a kid. Many people believe that he grew up poor, but I think his foster parents may have been wealthy, because how else would he have gotten a taste for things like opera and art? I think his mom leaving him on the steps of the Catholic charity opened all kinds of doors for him.
You can contribute a line, or a paragraph. I don't want overall assessments. I want stories, and I need to have them dated and placed, so that we can make a pointillistic biography, leaving it to some later person to connect all the dots and dates and jots and jabs. As an example of genius, I give you a brief piece by Anne Waldman, with the idea that the genius in one shall summon forth the genius in others.
As new pieces come in, I want to highlight them for a week. Please contribute and tell all your friends!
Unless you are already a famous poet known like Anne Waldman, leave some trace of who you are, so that if this ever gets published in paperback, I can track you down for permission to reprint your jot. Name, age, profession, along with an email address, would be ideal.
Send to: kirbyolson2@gmail.com
Kirby Olson, Professor
SUNY-Delhi
Author of Gregory Corso: Doubting Thomist (Southern Illinois, 2002).
The idea is that you write an anecdote — each anecdote should be like a party anecdote, something good enough to hold the attention of a room full of strangers (Corso appreciators) briefly. And it should be dated (when it happened), and the place (where it happened) specified. The model is John Aubrey's BRIEF LIVES -- scintillating well-written peeks.
Corso's first book was published by a group of kids at Harvard, and he was buried by subscription, so I think it’s good to get his biography going through crowd-sourcing.
I’d especially like to get people who knew him as a kid. Many people believe that he grew up poor, but I think his foster parents may have been wealthy, because how else would he have gotten a taste for things like opera and art? I think his mom leaving him on the steps of the Catholic charity opened all kinds of doors for him.
You can contribute a line, or a paragraph. I don't want overall assessments. I want stories, and I need to have them dated and placed, so that we can make a pointillistic biography, leaving it to some later person to connect all the dots and dates and jots and jabs. As an example of genius, I give you a brief piece by Anne Waldman, with the idea that the genius in one shall summon forth the genius in others.
As new pieces come in, I want to highlight them for a week. Please contribute and tell all your friends!
Unless you are already a famous poet known like Anne Waldman, leave some trace of who you are, so that if this ever gets published in paperback, I can track you down for permission to reprint your jot. Name, age, profession, along with an email address, would be ideal.
Send to: kirbyolson2@gmail.com
Kirby Olson, Professor
SUNY-Delhi
Author of Gregory Corso: Doubting Thomist (Southern Illinois, 2002).
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- PLEASE READ THE INTRO AND ANNE WALDMAN'S EXAMPLE BEFORE CONTRIBUTING! Send to Kirbyolson2@gmail.com.
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