Footnote

I remember the first poem I ever loved. Until that moment in time, I HATED all poetry, with every fiber of my disdainful, overly-logical being. I thought it belonged with the melancholy tortured souls of this world, the depressed, the emotional, the egocentric and vain. Like, "GREAT, you probably play guitar, too." I thought half of it was unnecessarily difficult to understand, and the other half was just re-arranged prose. Like, look at me! I can break up a sentence!

For example:
the melancholy tortured
souls of this world
the depressed the emotional
the egocentric
and vain.

See? Poetry. And I DON'T have Kurt Cobain on my wall.

And then one night in college I was in a bookstore with a fellow English major, Natalie. And Natalie had (has) the most beautiful reading voice I'd ever heard. It was one of those moments where I never realized there was a such THING as a reading voice until I heard hers. Usually when people tried reading something to me, it just irritated me and made me uncomfortable and self-conscious. But then Natalie picked up Ginsberg. "Let me read you something that will change your mind about poetry." "PLEASE don't read a poem out loud. Really, I can't handle it. I'm bored already." "No, listen." And she starts the Footnote to Howl. I was MESmorized by the poem, her voice, her voice reading the poem. It was life-changing. GOOSEBUMPS good. I couldn't get enough. I bought Howl right there, that night. And while now I still wouldn't classify myself as a poetry LOVER--I certainly don't seek it out--I would say I'm a poetry appreciator on well-deserved occasion. And today for whatever reason, I woke up to the word 'holy,' and the footnote came to mind. Abridged here for you:

Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy!
Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy!
The world is holy! The soul is holy! The skin is holy!
The nose is holy! The tongue and cock and hand
and asshole holy!
Everything is holy! everybody's holy! everywhere is
holy! everyday is in eternity! Everyman's an
angel!
The bum's as holy as the seraphim! the madman is
holy as you my soul are holy!
...
Holy the sea holy the desert holy the railroad holy the
locomotive holy the visions holy the hallucina-
tions holy the miracles holy the eyeball holy the
abyss!
Holy forgiveness! mercy! charity! faith! Holy! Ours!
bodies! suffering! magnanimity!
Holy the supernatural extra brilliant intelligent
kindness of the soul!