Poetry

He hears the whispers of gargoyles in a hall of heavy stone.

-- Mike Kuchar

Why is the world still so beautiful when beauty’s self is fled; like the stone boy, mute, motionless and dead in marble loveliness.

This compilation features several of Cohen’s pieces from the late 1980s and early 1990s: a paean to both the physical and mental aspects of the New York City landscape, an exploration of cinematic genres from narrative to music video, a sensual and romantic portrait of swimmers at a water hole, and a sound and image piece inspired by a telephone confession line.

Total running time 1:15:00.

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) was a leading American poet who gained notoriety in the 1950s and ’60s through his association with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance.  One of the most controversial poets of his time, his book Howl and Other Poems faced an obscenity trial in 1957 and became one of the most widely read poems of the 20th Century. In the '60s and '70s, Ginsberg studied under gurus and Zen masters.

Men asleep, a dream, play, a song; angel and snow, wings and flowers, money and trees; fast then slow, piano decays, laughter.

"Great woods, you frighten me like some cathedral's gloom, and awaken pastoral pipes on pagan heights."

-- Mike Kuchar