I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by
madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn
looking for an angry fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly
connection to the starry dynamo in the machin-
ery of night
who scribbled all night rocking and rolling over lofty
incantations which in the yellow morning were
stanzas of gibberish
What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open
their skulls and ate up their brains and imagi-
nation?
Real holy laughter in the river! They saw it all! the
wild eyes! the holy yells! They bade farewell!
They jumped off the roof! to solitude! waving!
carrying flowers! Down to the river! into the
street!
I'm with you in Rockland
where you're madder than I am
I'm with you in Rockland
in my dreams you walk dripping from a sea-
journey on the highway across America in tears
to the door of my cottage in the Western night