Running from the Devil (Allen Geinsberg)

Running from the Devil
(The Poet Allen Ginsberg)

(Please read notes for better interpretation of poem)


Part One
How He was

He was running from the devil—during his last days,
he tried to be an agnostic, but was really an angry atheist,
always getting in God’s face, he never gave God an inch,
just insults as if he wanted him to change his rules,
his ways, change the status of his beliefs (somehow the devil
filched his soul, I dare say): he and his ex-lover
William Burroughs who played the same games.
Somehow, Burroughs outlived Allen by four months,
he had to get rid of his cats first—I suppose,
or perhaps it was his rats? –he also left his letters of pity,
for mankind, and the devil laughed over his drug infested piety.
Ginsberg even implied he was going to hell for his lustful,
obsessive, grotesque, possessive desires (he proclaimed
if anything, he was no liar, perhaps that’s is true, for
he let the world see is rotting soul…); so he claimed,
contributed to the insane American way of life,
how nice, he grabbed onto the knife, but never
cut out the pus, nor opened the boils, the sores,
that covered the core of his soul…
white on rice, like mice to cheese, he simple ridiculed
all how who sought peace with God. And wrote his
indecent poetry. And that is his life’s story.

Part Two
More of the Devil

But as I was saying, he was being chased, running from
the devil whom came for him—on that last doomful day—
for he was a man of letters you see, and he wrote what he lived,
believed in; if anything he was overly candid, in a pitiful way!
Thus, I do believe perhaps the death demon came,
once for him before, but spared him the day,
so they could play some more—with his love for sex
and objects, and vain over glorified name;
but his day, was his day to die, and I believe these
devils or demon wanted to drag him down to the underground
world, and his hours were few, and short, and the horse he
was on had no name or route, so he kept saying 'giddy yap'
and with his mind and feet, he tried to defeat the devil
(running in circles, and more circles, on an endless path);
yes, he tried to defeat the devil, whom was his master
in foreplay, and now his running mate.


Part Three
His Running Mage


And when they (he and the devil) were side by side,
neck to neck, shoulder to shoulder, thigh to thigh,
eye to eye, he told death to shut up, and death said
(with the devil laughing behind) "I never get tired,
I can run and run and run, until there is no sun,
run and run until twilight comes, run and run
until that old heart of your’s stops beating,
be it another hour or ten, or hundred, it doesn’t matter when,
you’re talking to the devil, not man, and I can…!"

And the horse and Allen keep going,
and going and going, running everywhichway,
until there was no more giddy-yap left, and death
was then on top of him, like a vulture to a corpse—
like a mouse to cheese, like a worm to dirt, like a
fish to water—and the devil dragged him down,
down deep into the ground, like a dead lion, bull,
to scheol’s courts, near the docks of hell, to
where there would never be another single day—
just one long one.

Note: Allen Ginsberg wrote only a few poems before he died, which was perhaps for the better of mankind. Matter-of-fact, his last poem was on March 30th 1997, a week before his death (he died April 5, of the same year). On March 24th he wrote "Giddy-yap giddy yap giddy yap shut up." This basically was all he had to say in the six line poem. Not a very intriguing poem to say the least. But what was he saying? In many of my studies with people dying, in psychology, working with the aging folks, I look at what I consider unusual behavior, and this out of the ordinary behavior struck me as meaningful, it had touch of reality to it, I have witnessed similar at times, so looking at his past, knowing his behavior, and his poetry, what was he really saying? We all interpret things the way we want, yet there is a pattern if you study his last writings, and so here is my interpretation of those almost final words, during his final two weeks of his life:

#2313 ((3-8-2008) (modified 4-14-2008; and 4-21-2008))