Valery Oisteanu: Peter Orlovsky (July 8, 1933 – May 30, 2010)

Peter Orlovsky (July 8, 1933 – May 30, 2010)
Remembrance by Valery Oisteanu

That was your face laughing wild
As if it could trick madness
At the entrance to the St. Marks Church
Peter is confessing about pills
Talking to Ira Cohen and me
Lithium and anti-depressant are mentioned
Andy Warhol & Peter’s “The Couch”
Allen Ginsberg’s trashed kitchen, cops called in
The existential gray ponytail is revealed
While the wind blows his hat off in the East Yard
Deep voice, drinking with your eyes shut
Lamenting his brother, his lover, his own mind
Insanity fallows him to Creedmoor mental ward
But at that fragile morning of last day of May
A sunflower blossomed and starts bleeding petals
Alone in death, alone and still, alone and naked
Folded arms, closed lips, heart full of unwritten poems
Swimming up the stream of eternity
Shivering up the glittering dream.

©2010 Valery Oisteanu


Peter Orlovsky was best known as Allen Ginsberg's lover and companion of almost three decades, from about the fifties to the seventies. What is less well known is that he was a wonderful poet in his own right. His work has appeared in numerous magazines and antholologies. Peter died May 30, 2010 at the age of 76. To read 4 of Orlovsky's poems from Clean Asshole Poems & Smiling Vegetable Songs, Pocket Poets Series #37, City Lights Books ©1978 by Peter Orlovsky online visit Brian Nation's blogspot Beat the Devil: http://boppin.com/orlovsky.html


Valery Oisteanu is the author of 11 books of poetry; his latest is Perks in Purgatory (Fly By Night Press, 2009). He is a columnist at New York Arts Magazine, and art critic for Brooklyn Rail and ArtNet.com. His website is http://zendadanyc.vpweb.com/