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John Giorno

THANX 4 NOTHING

  • 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
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THANX 4 NOTHING
on my 70th Birthday in 2006

I want to give my thanks to everyone for everything,
and as a token of my appreciation,
I want to offer back to you all my good and bad habits
as magnificent priceless jewels,
wish-fulfilling gems satisfying everything you need and want,
thank you, thank you, thank you,
thanks.

May every drug I ever took
come back and get you high,
may every glass of vodka and wine I’ve drunk
come back and make you feel really good,
numbing your nerve ends
allowing the natural clarity of your mind to flow free,
may all the suicides be songs of aspiration,
thanks that bad news is always true,
may all the chocolate I ever eaten
come back rushing through your bloodstream
and make you feel happy,
thanks for allowing me to be a poet
a noble effort, doomed, but the only choice.

I want to thank you for your kindness and praise,
thanks for celebrating me,
thanks for the resounding applause,
I want to thank you for taking everything for yourself
and giving nothing back,
you were always only self-serving,
thanks for exploiting my big ego
and making me a star for your own benefit,
thanks that you never paid me,
thanks for all the sleaze,
thanks for being  mean and rude
and smiling at my face,
I am happy that you robbed me,
I am happy that you lied
I am happy that you helped me,
thanks, grazie, merci beaucoup.

May you smoke a joint with William,
and spend intimate time with his mind,
more profound than any book he wrote,
I give enormous thanks to all my lovers,
beautiful men with brilliant minds,
great artists,
Bob, Jasper, Ugo,
may they come here now
and make love to you,
and may my many other lovers
of totally great sex,
countless lovers
of boundless fabulous sex
countless lovers of boundless fabulous sex
countless lovers of boundless
fabulous sex
in the golden age
of promiscuity
may they all come here now,
and make love to you,
if you want,
may each of them
hold each of you in their arms
balling
to your hearts
delight.
balling to your hearts
delight
balling to
your hearts delight
balling to your hearts delight.
               
May all the people who are dead
Allen, Brion, Lita, Jack,
and I do not miss any of you
I don’t miss any of them,
no nostalgia,
it was wonderful we loved each other
but I don’t want any of them back,
now, if any of you
are attracted to any of them,
may they come back from the dead,
and do whatever is your pleasure,
may they multiply,
and be the slaves
of whomever wants them,
fulfilling your every wish and desire,
(but you won’t want them as masters,
as they’re demons),
may Andy come here
fall in love with you
and make each of you a superstar,
everyone can have
Andy.
everyone can
have Andy.
everyone can have Andy,
everyone can have an Andy.

Huge hugs to the friends who betrayed me,
every friend became an enemy,
sooner or later,
I am delighted you are vacuum cleaners
sucking everything into your dirt bags,
you are none other than a reflection of my mind.

Thanks for the depression problem
and feeling like suicide
everyday of my life,
and now that I’m seventy,
I am happily almost there.                  
                 
Twenty billion years ago,
in the primordial wisdom soup
beyond comprehension and indescribable,
something without substance moved slightly,
and became something imperceptible,
moved again and became something invisible,
moved again and produced a particle and particles,
moved again and became a quark,
again and became quarks,
moved again and again and became protons and neutrons,
and the twelve dimensions of space,
tiny fire balls of primordial energy
bits tossed back and forth
in a game of catch between particles,
transmitting electromagnetic light
and going fast, 40 million times a second,
where the pebble hits the water,
that is where the trouble began,
something without substance became something with substance,
why did it happen?
because something substance less
had a feeling of missing out on something,
not
getting it
was not getting  it
not getting it,
not getting it,
imperceptibly not having something
when there was nothing to have,
clinging to a notion of reality;
from the primordially endless potential,
to modern day reality,
twenty billion years later,
has produced me,
gave birth to me and my stupid grasping mind,
made me and you and my grasping mind.

May Rinpoche and all the great Tibetan teachers who loved me,
come back and love you more,
hold you in their wisdom hearts,
bathe you in all-pervasive compassion,
give you pith instructions,
and may you with the diligence of Olympic athletes
do meditation practice,
and may you with direct confidence
realize the true nature of mind.

America, thanks for the neglect,
I did it without you,
let us celebrate poetic justice,
you and I never were,
never tried to do anything,
and never succeeded,
I want to thank you for introducing me to
the face of the naked mind,
thanx 4 nothing.

                                                                                    2007

© John Giorno / Published by permission of the author
From: Subduing Demons in America: Selected Poems 1962-2007
New York: Soft Skull Press, 2008
Audio production: 2008 Literaturwerkstatt Berlin

Translations:

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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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