Philip Whalen

READING A PHILIP WHALEN POEM WRITTEN THE YEAR I WAS BORN

I scan the lines of your poem

funny witty goofy ethereal lines

written the year I was born, here they are on paper

here am I sitting on a soft sofa listening to Coltrane

scanning your lines one by one,

where are you now Philip Whalen? Sipping drinks with the Buddha?

I hope so, I hope you are happy there, with all your friends

maybe Lew Welch has been found at last or found his way to you,

random lines I know!

you make me think randomly, but that’s ok

here I write a poem on the day of the birth of a thousand babies

in this moody changing chaotic world

will one read these lines?

maybe yes

maybe no

it’s not up to me but rather these streams of poetry that take some

and leave some by their log floundering for a hold, for one true line,

“A Love Supreme” spins on my turntable

I think that is enough happiness for me at this moment

this eternal moment that is this line I have written unedited

living this instant, living it intensely for all those I knew that can’t

what else can be written with the horns and drums in the background?

perhaps I will think about it, go for a walk

not an eternal walk, just down the road to the bus stop

to decide what this day may give me, a book, another poem, a dream...