Poet Talking to Himself in the Mirror by Gregory Corso

Hi, I’m me-- It has become glaringly absurd this hunt for me believing that when I was hunted down I’d find not only me but a whole herd past me’s, future me’s the whole cart load and all the years and where have I gotten to in this point of time this isn’t the same mirror I gazed into years ago It’s the mirror that changed Not poor Gregory Hey, in life Where I went, I went Where I stopped, I stopped When I spoke, I spoke When I listened, I listened What I ate, I ate What I loved, I loved But what about where I went, I did not go where I stopped, I moved on when I spoke, I listened when I fasted, I ate and when I loved . . . I did not want to hate Now I see people as police see them I also see nuns the same way I see hare-krishnas Ain’t got no agent can’t see poets having agents Yet Ginsy, Ferl, have one and make lots of money by them and fame too Maybe I should get an agent? Wow! No way, Gregory, stay close to the poem!!!

From “Mindfield” (Thunder’s Mouth Press: $24.95, cloth; 0-938410-85-7; $12.95, paper; 0-938410-86-5), with foreword by Allen Ginsberg and introductory notes by William S. Burroughs. Born in 1930, Corso was prominent in the Beat Generation literary movement of San Francisco in the 1950s. He now lives in New York City. This volume contains selections from his six published collections of poetry as well as a number of unpublished poems, including the one above, dated 1989. 1989, Gregory Corso. Reprinted by permission of Thunder’s Mouth Press.