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John Giorno

THE DEATH OF WILLIAM BURROUGHS

  • 1 EVERYONE GETS LIGHTER | Translations: de
  • 2 WELCOMING THE FLOWERS | Translations: de
  • 3 JUST SAY NO TO FAMILY VALUES | Translations: deru
  • 4 THE DEATH OF WILLIAM BURROUGHS | Translations: de
  • 5 LA SAGGEZZA DELLE STREGHE
    WISDOM OF THE WITCHES
    | Translations: de
  • 6 THERE WAS A BAD TREE | Translations: de
  • 7 THANX 4 NOTHING
Language: english
Translations: german (WILLIAM BURROUGHS’ TOD)
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THE DEATH OF WILLIAM BURROUGHS

William died on August 2, 1997, Saturday at 6:01 in the
afternoon from complications from a massive heart attack
he'd had the day before. He was 83 years old. I was with
William Burroughs when he died, and it was one of the best
times I ever had with him.  

Doing Tibetan Nyingma Buddhist meditation practices, I
absorbed William's consiousness into my heart. It seemed as
a bright white light, blinding but muted, empty. I was the
vehicle, his consciousness passing through me. A gentle
shooting star came in my heart and up the central channel,
and out the top of my head to a pure field of great clarity
and bliss.  It was very powerful  - William Burroughs resting
in great equanimity,  and the vast empty expanse of
primordial wisdom mind.

I was staying in William's house, doing my meditation
practices for him, trying to maintain good conditions and
dissolve any obstacles that might be arising for him at that
very moment in the bardo. I was confident that William had
a high degree of realization, but he was not a completely
enlightened being. Lazy, alcoholic, junkie William. I didn’t
not allow doubt to arise in my mind, even for an instant,
because it would allow doubt to arise in William’s mind.
Now, I had to do it for him.


What went into William Burroughs 'coffin
with his dead body:

About ten in the morning on Tuesday, August 6, 1997,
James Grauerholz and Ira Silverberg came to William's
house to pick out the clothes for the funeral director to put  
on William's corpse. His clothes were in a closet in my
room. And we picked the things to go into William's coffin
and grave, accompanying him on his journey in the
underworld.


His most favorite gun, a 38 special snub-nose, fully loaded
with five shots. He called it, "The Snubby." The gun was my
idea. "This is very important!" William always said you can
never be too well armed in any situation. Of his more than
80 world-class guns, it was his favorite. He often wore it on
his belt during the day, and slept with it, fully loaded, on
his right side, under the bed sheet, every night for fifteen
years.


Grey fedora. He always wore a hat when he went out. We
wanted his consciousness to feel perfectly at ease, dead.

His favorite cane, a sword cane made of hickory with a
light rosewood finish.

Sport jacket, black with a dark green tint. We rummaged
through the closet and it was the best of his shabby clothes,
and smelling sweet of him.


Blue jeans, the least worn ones were the only ones clean.

Red bandana. He always kept one in his back pocket.

Jockey underwear and socks.  

Black shoes. The ones he wore when he performed. I
thought the old brown ones, that he wore all the time,
because they were comfortable. James Grauerholz insisted,
"There's an old CIA slang that says getting a new
assignment is getting new shoes."

White shirt. We had bought it in a men's shop in Beverly
Hills in 1981 on The Red Night Tour.  It was his best shirt,
all the others were a bit ragged, and even though it had
become tight, he'd lost a lot of weight, and we thought it
would fit.  James said,” Don’t they slit it down the back
anyway.”


Necktie, blue, hand painted by William.

Moroccan vest, green velvet with gold brocade trim, given
him by Brion Gysin, twenty-five years before.

In his lapel button hole, the rosette of the French
government's Commandeur des Arts et Lettres, and the
rosette of the American Academy of Arts and Letters,
honors which William very much appreciated.

A gold coin in his pants pocket. A gold 19th Century Indian
head five dollar piece, symbolizing all wealth. William
would have enough money to buy his way in the
underworld.


His eyeglasses in his outside breast pocket.

A ball point pen, the kind he always used. "He was a
writer!",  and sometimes wrote long hand.

A joint of really good grass.

Heroin. Before the funeral service, Grant Hart slipped a
small white paper packet into William's pocket. "Nobody's
going to bust him." said Grant.  William, bejeweled with all
his adornments, was traveling in the underworld.

I kissed him. An early LP album of us together, 1975, was
called Biting Off The Tongue Of A Corpse.  I kissed him on
the lips, but I didn't do it .  .  . and I should have.

                                                                                                   1997

© John Giorno
Audio production: 2008 Literaturwerkstatt Berlin
Video
Categories: poetry & poets, literature & reading, popular culture, memory, religion & sprituality, death & grief

Translations:

Language: german

WILLIAM BURROUGHS’ TOD

William starb am 2. August 1997, Samstag um 18:01 Uhr an den
Komplikationen eines schweren Herzinfarktes, den er tags zuvor erlitten
hatte. Er war 83 Jahre alt. Ich war bei William Burroughs, als er starb, und
es war eine der besten Begegnungen, die wir je hatten.

Indem ich die Meditationspraxis des tibetischen Nyingma-Buddhismus
vollzog, nahm ich Williams Bewusstsein in mein Herz auf. Es erschien als
ein helles weißes Licht, blendend, aber gedämpft, leer. Ich war das
Fahrzeug, sein Bewusstsein ging durch mich hindurch. Eine sanfte
Sternschnuppe kam in mein Herz und den zentralen Kanal hinauf, und
oben aus meinem Kopf hinaus zu einem reinen Feld großer Klarheit und
Seligkeit. Es war ziemlich überwältigend – William Burroughs ruhte in
großem Gleichmut und in der weiten leeren Ausdehnung des
ursprünglichen Weisheitsgeistes.

Ich hielt mich in Williams Haus auf und vollzog meine Meditationspraxis für
ihn, versuchte, gute Bedingungen aufrecht zu erhalten und alle
Widrigkeiten aufzulösen, die für ihn in genau diesem Moment im Bardo
entstehen könnten. Ich war überzeugt, dass William einen hohen Grad an
Realisation hatte, aber er war kein vollständig erleuchtetes Wesen.
Faulpelz, Alkoholiker, Junkie William. Ich ließ nicht zu, dass sich Zweifel in
meinem Geist regte, nicht für einen einzigen Moment, weil das gestatten
würde, dass sich Zweifel in Williams Geist regte. Jetzt musste ich es für ihn
tun.   


Was zusammen mit seinem toten Körper in William Burroughs’ Sarg kam:

Am Dienstag, dem 6. August, gegen zehn Uhr vormittag, kamen James
Grauerholz und Ira Silverberg in Williams Haus, um die Kleidung
auszusuchen, die der Bestatter seinem Leichnam anlegen sollte. Seine
Kleider waren in einem Schrank in meinem Zimmer. Und wir suchten die
Sachen aus, die in Williams Sarg und Grab gehen, ihn auf seiner Reise
durch die Unterwelt begleiten sollten.

Seine Lieblingspistole, eine 38er Spezial Kurzlauf, vollständig geladen mit
fünf Schüssen. Er nannte sie "The Snubby". Die Pistole war meine Idee.
"Das ist sehr wichtig!" William sagte immer, man könne in keiner Lage gut
genug bewaffnet sein. Von seinen mehr als 80 Schusswaffen von
Weltklasse war diese seine liebste. Er trug sie tagsüber oft im Gürtel und
schlief mit ihr, vollständig geladen, auf seiner rechten Seite, unter dem
Laken, jede Nacht, fünfzehn Jahre lang.

Grauer Fedora-Hut. Er trug immer einen Hut, wenn er ausging. Wir wollten,
dass sich sein Bewusstsein völlig unbeschwert fühlte, auch im Tod.

Sein Lieblingsstock, ein Stockdegen aus Hickoryholz mit heller
Rosenholzpolitur.

Sportjackett, schwarz mit einem Stich ins Dunkelgrün. Wir wühlten den
ganzen Schrank durch, und es war das beste Stück unter seinen
schäbigen Anziehsachen und roch angenehm nach ihm.

Blue Jeans, die am wenigsten abgetragenen waren als einzige sauber.

Rotes Schnupftuch. Er hatte immer eins in der Gesäßtasche.

Jockey-Unterwäsche und -Socken.

Schwarze Schuhe. Die, die er trug, wenn er auftrat. Ich dachte an die alten
braunen, die er immer trug, weil sie bequem waren. James Grauerholz
bestand jedoch darauf: "Es gibt diesen alten CIA-Spruch, der besagt,
einen neuen Auftrag bekommen heißt neue Schuhe bekommen.“

Weißes Hemd. Wir hatten es bei einem Herrenausstatter in Beverly Hills
1981 während "The Red Night Tour" gekauft. Es war sein bestes
Hemd - alle anderen waren etwas verschlissen, und obwohl es eng
geworden war, hatte er doch stark abgenommen, und wir dachten, es
würde passen. James sagte: "Schlitzen sie es nicht sowieso hinten auf?"

Halstuch, blau, handbemalt von William.

Marokkanische Weste, grüner Samt mit Goldbrokatrand, ein Geschenk von
Brion Gysin, vor fünfundzwanzig Jahren.

Im Knopfloch am Revers die Rosette des Commandeur Des Artes Et Lettres
der französischen Regierung und die Rosette der American Academy Of
Arts And Letters, Ehrungen, die William sehr geschätzt hatte.

Eine Goldmünze in der Hosentasche. Ein goldenes Fünf-Dollar-Stück mit
Indianerkopf aus dem 19. Jahrhundert, ein Symbol allen Reichtums. William
würde genug Geld haben, seinen Weg in der Unterwelt zu bezahlen.

Seine Brille in der äußeren Brusttasche.

Einen Kugelschreiber der Sorte, die er immer benutzte. "Er war doch
Schriftsteller!", und er schrieb manchmal mit der Hand.

Ein Joint mit richtig gutem Gras.

Heroin. Vor der Trauerfeier steckte Grant Hart ein kleines weißes
Papierpäckchen in Williams Seitentasche. "Niemand wird ihn hochnehmen."
sagte Grant. Herausgeputzt mit all seinen Schmuckstücken reiste William
in der Unterwelt.

Ich küsste ihn. Ein frühes LP-Album von uns beiden, 1975, hieß Biting
Off The Tongue Of A Corpse
(die Zunge einer Leiche abbeißen). Ich
küsste ihn auf die Lippen, und ich tat es nicht.... aber ich hätte es tun
sollen.

                                                                                                   1997

Aus dem Amerikanischen von Thomas Marquard
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John Giorno

photo © gezett.de
* 04.12.1936, New York City, United States
† 11.10.2019, New York City, United States

John Giorno, born in New York in 1936, was a highly innovative and influential figure; with a career spanning over 50 years, he is often considered to be one of the originators of Performance Poetry.

A key figure in the Factory art scene, John Giorno was a friend and contemporary of many of the most significant 1960s writers and artists, including Ginsberg, Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, and was the subject of Andy Warhol’s experimental 1963 film Sleep.

 photo © gezett.de
In 1965 he founded the artist collective and record label Giorno Poetry Systems, which pioneered multimedia poetry, releasing over forty poetry LPs and CDs, as well as videos of live performances, by artists such as William Burroughs, John Ashbery, Patti Smith, Philip Glass and Laurie Anderson. Giorno also initiated the 1968 communication experiment Dial-A-Poem, which allowed callers to dial a number and listen to a recording of a live poetry performance. These innovative uses of modern technology brought poetry to new audiences, and were influential on later poetic movements, such as Spoken Word and Slam Poetry.

Giorno was also a pioneering Aids campaigner, and om 1984 founded the Aids Treatment Project, an organization which was effective in raising the public’s awareness of Aids long before it became an issue often addressed in public.

John Giorno’s latest book was the anthology, Subduing Demons in America: Selected Poems 1962-2007, published in 2008.

John Giorno died of a heart attack at age 82 on October 11, 2019, at his home in Lower Manhattan..

Publications
  • Poems by John Giorno

    New York: Mother Press, 1967

  • Johnny Guitar

    New York: Angel Hair Books (today United Artists Books), 1969

  • Balling Buddha

    New York: Kulchur Foundation, 1970

  • Birds

    New York: Angel Hair Books (today United Artists Books), 1971

  • Cancer in my left ball: Poems, 1970-1972

    New York: Something Else Press, 1973

  • Shit, Piss, Blood & Brains

    Philadelphia: The Painted Bride Press, 1977

  • Grasping at emptiness

    New York: Kulchur Foundation, 1985

  • Du Musst Brennen Um Zu Strahlen

    [Deutsch]

    Berlin: Stop Over Press, 1985

  • You Got to Burn to Shine: New and Selected Writings

    New York: Serpent's Tail Publishing Ltd, 1993

  • Jeder wird leichter

    [englisch-deutsch]

    Berlin: Stadtlichter Presse, 2007

  • Subduing Demons in America: Selected Poems 1962-2007

    New York: Soft Skull Press, 2008

Links
  • John Giorno @ PennSound

    incl. the two 'S Press' tapes: Johnny Guitar (1969–1972) + Balling Buddha (1975)

    Website
  • John Giorno @ UbuWeb

    Mp3s of John Giorno's early work, including Giorno Poetry Systems and Dial-A-Poem

    Website (en)
  • John Giorno @ Wikipedia

    Website (en)

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