Allen Ginsberg's Poem to My Parents

In 1977, my mom's best friend was at Naropa University in Colorado. My mom was a newlywed (younger than I am now) who had graduated college and moved to a farm in Tennessee. Allen Ginsberg was also at Naropa, and he was charging a buck to write a personalized poem, so my mom's friend stood in line, paid a dollar, and had him write a poem for my parents.

She sent the letter to my mom, who read it, appreciated it and then stuffed it in a drawer for ... 32 years. My parents moved into their current house around 1982, and there the poem sat until 2009, when my mom was cleaning out a storage closet and found all of these letters from when she and my dad first moved to Tennessee in the mid-1970s. Among those was the Ginsberg poem, which is now in its proper place, hanging in the kitchen in a double-sided frame so you can read it in its entirety.

Ghost Names!

Friends of the Strange

Jewish Lady!

Male & female phantoms!

Salutations with a

Transparent Buddhist

Signature –

Allen Ginsberg

July 6, 1977

Naropa Institute

This is the back of the poem, with my parents' names and my mom's friend's name. I asked my mom what "AH" meant. Her response: "Ahh?" Who knows. Ginsberg was quite an odd fellow.