Hospital Window Poem by Allen Ginsberg

Hospital Window

Rating: 2.9


At gauzy dusk, thin haze like cigarette smoke
ribbons past Chrysler Building's silver fins
tapering delicately needletopped, Empire State's
taller antenna filmed milky lit amid blocks
black and white apartmenting veil'd sky over Manhattan,
offices new built dark glassed in blueish heaven--The East
50's & 60's covered with castles & watertowers, seven storied
tar-topped house-banks over York Avenue, late may-green trees
surrounding Rockefellers' blue domed medical arbor--
Geodesic science at the waters edge--Cars running up
East River Drive, & parked at N.Y. Hospital's oval door
where perfect tulips flower the health of a thousand sick souls
trembling inside hospital rooms. Triboro bridge steel-spiked
penthouse orange roofs, sunset tinges the river and in a few
Bronx windows, some magnesium vapor brilliances're
spotted five floors above E 59th St under grey painted bridge
trestles. Way downstream along the river, as Monet saw Thames
100 years ago, Con Edison smokestacks 14th street,
& Brooklyn Bridge's skeined dim in modern mists--
Pipes sticking up to sky nine smokestacks huge visible--
U.N. Building hangs under an orange crane, & red lights on
vertical avenues below the trees turn green at the nod
of a skull with a mild nerve ache. Dim dharma, I return
to this spectacle after weeks of poisoned lassitude, my thighs
belly chest & arms covered with poxied welts,
head pains fading back of the neck, right eyebrow cheek
mouth paralyzed--from taking the wrong medicine, sweated
too much in the forehead helpless, covered my rage from
gorge to prostate with grinding jaw and tightening anus
not released the weeping scream of horror at robot Mayaguez
World self ton billions metal grief unloaded
Pnom Penh to Nakon Thanom, Santiago & Tehran.
Fresh warm breeze in the window, day's release
from pain, cars float downside the bridge trestle
and uncounted building-wall windows multiplied a mile
deep into ash-delicate sky beguile
my empty mind. A seagull passes alone wings
spread silent over roofs.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Brian Jani 07 July 2014

i like your way of poetry.you have a uneque signature style.well done hey

3 5 Reply
Subhas Chandra Chakra 13 November 2017

Beautiful poem. A rare art of poetry. Thanks for the sharing. Congrats for the selection.

1 1 Reply
Bernard F. Asuncion 13 November 2017

Such an interesting poem by Allen Ginsberg....

1 1 Reply
Richard Wlodarski 13 November 2017

Unique in his special way!

1 0 Reply
Kumarmani Mahakul 13 November 2017

Fantastic expression. Nice penmanship. Thanks and congratulations to your soul for being selected this poem as the poem of the day.

1 0 Reply
Dr Antony Theodore 01 February 2019

U.N. Building hangs under an orange crane, & red lights on vertical avenues below the trees turn green at the nod of a skull with a mild nerve ache. a fine poem.. thank u. tony

0 0 Reply
Sylvaonyema Uba 13 November 2017

A well expressed poem. Nicely written. Sylva.

0 0 Reply
Douglas Scotney 13 November 2017

'Dim Dharma' I love....

0 0 Reply
Edward Kofi Louis 13 November 2017

Silent over roofs! ! Thanks for sharing this poem with us.

0 0 Reply
Geeta Radhakrishna Menon 13 November 2017

A hospital window has has myriad visions. A brilliant portrayal of a patient in a hospital.

0 0 Reply
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Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg

Newark, New Jersey
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