a edited by richard peabody writings by women of the beat generation eat BOOKS Contents Introduction 1 Mimi Albert from The Second Story Man 4 Carol Berge tessa's song 12 Pavane for the White Queen 15 Chant for Half the World 18 Etching 21 Carolyn Cassady from Off the Road: My Years with Cassady, Kerouac, and Ginsberg 22 Elise Cowen "At the acting class" 27 "Dear God of the bent trees of Fifth Avenue" 27 "Death I'm coming" 28 "I took the skin of corpses" 29 "I wanted a cunt of golden pleasure" 30 "If it weren't for love I'd snooze all day" 31 "The sound now in the street is the echo of a long" 31 "Trust yourself—but not too far" 32 LeoSkir Elise Cowen: A Brief Memoir of the Fifties 33 Diane di Prima The Quarrel 46 Requiem 47 Minor Arcana 48 The Window 49 For Zella, Painting 50 from Memoirs of a Beatnik 51 Brenda Frazer Breaking out of D.C. (1959) 60 Sandra Hochman Farewell Poems 65 About My Life at That Time 66 Postscript 66 Julian 67 The Seed 68 Cancer 69 Burning with Mist 70 There Are No Limits to Mv Svstem 71 Joyce Johnson from Minor Characters 72 Contents I vii Kay Johnson Proximity 80 poems from paris 84 Hettie Jones from How I Became Hettie Jones 88 Lenore Kandel First They Slaughtered the Angels 100 Love-Lust Poem 103 Junk/Angel 105 Blues for Sister Sally 106 Eileen Kaufman from Who Wouldn't Walk with Tigers 108 Frankie "Edie" from You'll Be Okay 115 Kerouac-Parker Jan Kerouac from Baby Driver 124 from Trainsong 132 Joan Haverty Kerouac from Nobody's Wife 134 Joanne Kyger Tapestry 140 "Waiting again" 140 "They are constructing a craft" 141 "It is lonely" 142 The Hunt in the Wood: Paolo Uccello 143 Waiting 143 "The persimmons are falling" 144 The Pigs for Circe in May 145 Fran Landesman The Ballad of the Sad Young Men 147 "She"(forHanja) 148 The Princess from Flatbush 148 Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most 149 It's Only a Movie 150 Why 150 Homecoming 151 Where the Blues Begin 151 All That Fall (for Ernie) 152 The Decline of the West 153 Sheri Martinelli Duties of a Lady Female 154 Joanna McClure 1957 159 Sound Poem 161 Ocotillo 162 A Chinese Painting' 163 7-21-61 163 viii ! Contents Wolf Poem I 164 Wolf Poem n 164 Outside Tucson 165 30th Birthday—Haiku 165 A Vacancy 165 Hollywood 166 More Blessed to Give 167 Barbara Moraff "and torn, the existentialiste, drives, off..." 168 you, phoebusapollo 169 Hokusai & Moraff 170 Hokusai got drunk 170 Piscean Hokusai 170 Moraff to Hokusai 171 Hokusai at home 171 Craft 172 poetics 173 the way John told it 174 mary's testament 175 Brigid Murnaghan George Washington: A Dialogue Between Mother & Daughter 177 Daisy 177 Chinatown 178 Mother's Day 178 Tweeds 178 For My Mother 179 "The bridge of all bridges" 180 "The smell of the fish market" 180 "The fog in Washington Square Park" 180 First Asparagus of Spring 181 Margaret Randall Come Winter 182 Ecstacy is a Number 183 On Seeing An Old Man Die in the Street 183 Any Little Boy Wanting to Be President 184 St. Margaret Stepping from the Belly of the Dragon 185 Untitled, Unnumbered 186 Number 5 186 Thelonius 187 Still Life with.Ketchup 187 Of Our Time 188 Gesture 188 Contents I ix Laura Ulewicz Pinpoint 190 Letter Three 191 Third Generation 193 Sargasso Sea 194 Manhattan as a Japanese Print 194 Celebration in Oregon 195 Aphrodite Declining 196 McNichols Road, 1951 198 TeDeum 199 Janine Pommy Vega "poem to your lean face, leaning down eyes" 200 "thrumming with it Lord thrumming with it" 202 Poem Against Endless Mass Poetry Readings 203 Junk (& the old man) Changes 204 Poem/Exhortation 205 Anne Waldman After "Les Fleurs" 210 College Under Water 210 The Blue That Reminds Me of the Boat When She Left 211 The De Carlo Lots 211 How the Sestina (Yawn) Works 217 ruth weiss from THE BRINK 219 les 225 Copyright Notices 233 x I Contents.