Dead Poets! Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg
Unexpected English!
02/24/21
•4m
About
Comments
[EP 67] Dead Poets! In this episode I read a poem about one great poet to honor the passing of another. Don't let the word "poem" scare you, just listen! (transcription included below)
***
Hey everybody! You'r listening to Unexpected English! This is episode 67 and I'm doing this episode for a special reason. That is that today I learned that the writer and poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti died, passed away. And that's OK! He was 101 years old! But it reminded me of his poetry, which I like, and I found a good one to read for you. And it's good because it's about another great poet: Allen Ginsberg. I'm sure you've heard of Allen Ginsberg. If you haven't heard about Lawrence Ferlinghetti, you might want to look for some of his poems. But Ferlinghetti wrote this poem for Ginsberg, who was dying at the time, and I thought it was appropriate. And it's quite a good poem, so I decided to read it for you. I hope you enjoy it. Here we go!
Allen Ginsberg is dying
It's in all the papers
It's on the evening news
A great poet is dying
But his voice
won't die
His voice is on the land
In Lower Manhattan
in his own bed
he is dying
There is nothing
to do about it
He is dying the death that everyone dies
He is dying the death of the poet
He has a telephone in his hand
and he calls everyone
from his bed in Lower Manhattan
All around the world
late at night
the telephone is ringing
This is Allen
the voice says
Allen Ginsberg calling
How many times have they heard it
over the long great years
He doesn't have to say Ginsberg
All around the world
in the world of poets
there is only one Allen
I wanted to tell you he says
He tells them what's happening
what's coming down
on him
Death the dark lover
going down on him
His voice goes by satellite
over the land
over the Sea of Japan
where he once stood naked
trident in hand
like a young Neptune
a young man with black beard
standing on a stone beach
It is hightide and the seabirds cry
The waves break over him now
and the seabirds cry
on the San Francisco waterfront
There is a high wind
There are great whitecaps
lashing the Embarcadero
Allen is on the telephone
His voice is on the waves
I am reading Greek poetry
The sea is in it
Horses weep in it
The horses of Achilles
weep in it
here by the sea
in San Francisco
where the waves weep
They make a sibilant sound
a sibylline sound
Allen
they whisper
Allen
***
Thanks for listening! please tell your friends -- word of mouth really helps! Follow on Spotify and Instagram, and tell your friends!
Previous Episode
Ecuador Calling!
February 11, 2021
•6m
[EP 66] I take a call from ECUADOR and find out some unexpected things! Listen and follow with the transcript!
Hey everybody, and welcome to another episode of Unexpected English, where I have, yes, something unexpected. Well, it's unexpected because this is the first telephone interview. That's right, I interviewed someone from Ecuador, who just called. right? So it's a new thing, I think it works. And if it does work, that means, that means you can call me too and I can interview you. I guess I don't know. Let's, let's not even wait around, let's just get right to the episode. Okay. Yeah, let's do that. Here we go.
***
Hello, thanks for calling Unexpected English. Who am I speaking with? You’re speaking with Joffre, it’s a pleasure, Louis. Joffe, where are you calling from? I'm calling far far away from you. I'm calling from Ecuador. It’ isn’t a food. No, although, that, okay, it makes me think of food so tell me: if I go to Ecuador, what is the one dish that I have to try? Yeah, okay. You will eat guinea pig. It's something crazy for many people around the world, but we eat here guinea pig. Yeah, what, what's it called, what's it called? It is called “cuy.”
Cuy! yeah I know. I've heard of that! Cuy is.. is that, but I mean, is it a typical plate, cuy? Yes, at least in the place where I live. It is common, many people enjoy eating cuy, like, each week, or maybe twice a week. Many people are eating cuy. Okay, so we have, we sit down to a nice dish of cuy. Well yeah, with, with some kind of beer. What's the best beer to have with cuy? Here it is called Pilsner. The most popular here it is called Pilsner. Oh Pilsner but pils... Pilsner is a style of beer, actually. Ah, isn't it?
Yeah, it is! Okay, so we've got the dish we've got the beer... Some potatoes, and potatoes yeah, okay, this is... Here we have many kinds of potatoes, like 1000s of potatoes, kinds of potatoes. A thousand varieties of potatoes, and each one is more delicious than the next one, probably, yeah? Yes yeah there's a different taste. Okay, tell me, what do people, what do Ecuadorians, what are they famous for... I mean what do people say about Ecuadorians? Oh, that's a tricky question. Ecuadorians, we like to cook, to make delicious food. And we have many places to go to visit. I believe the most famous place from Ecuador is called Galapagos. Oh yeah yeah that’s too famous, we know about, that we don't need tourism... Ok, yes, like people here... we are relaxed. We aren't stressed about work.
So it's a good place to relax. It's a good place to eat cuy. Exactly! And have a beer. Let me think, the last thing.... Oh, I know, the last thing is to tell people about your podcast, because you have a podcast, right? Yes, yes. I have a podcast to help people who are learning Spanish and learning English. And we are a group, a group of friends that we have been learning Spanish and English for a while, and we decided to have a podcast to help other people. Okay, what's the...what's the name. It's called “amigos, learning languages.”
Okay, people so there it is, if you speak Spanish, or if you speak English and want to learn Spanish... because your podcast is kind of Spanglish, right? You do both languages? Yes it is, Spanglish because I'm trying to relate what we already know in Spanish, and what we already know in English, to try to make it easier for people to learn English and Spanish relating those languages.
All right, so everybody who loves Unexpected English. I know they love to learn languages. So maybe they want to check out your podcast which is called... “Amigos Learning Languages” “Amigos learning languages!”...there you go. All right, everybody, I think you've got it. You've heard we've heard from from Joffre in Ecuador, and that's it. Thanks for your time, Joffre. It was a pleasure, Louis . Okay. Have a good day. You too. Thanks. Bye Bye
***
PLEASE SHARE! https://linktr.ee/unexpectedenglish
Next Episode
Butter My Butt, Arkansas style!
March 2, 2021
•7m
[EP 68] We learn some things about Arkansas! (transcript)
Hello, thanks for calling Unexpected English, who am I speaking with? Hi, this is Kat Mondu. Kat, Yes! Where are you calling from, Kat? I'm calling from Arkansas. Arkansas. OK. I'm not sure people know where, Arkansas, is geographically so could you tell us? It is kind of in the mid-south of the USA. In the middle of the south of the USA, with other states around you like.,,Like, Oklahoma, and Texas, Missouri. Okay, all right, I guess, if, anybody doesn't know, you can look at a map for, Arkansas, right? Right above Louisiana. Right above Louisiana. Wait a minute, I have a problem with Arkansas. Yeah, I'll tell you what my problem is. Could you spell that for us? Yes. ARKANSAS That’s Arkansas right? But then you have KANSAS, and that's Kansas! So how come you guys aren't ark-KANSAS? Well, because Kansas should really be kan-SAW! OK. All right, I'm glad we got that cleared up! So this is Kat calling from Arkansas which is nowhere near kan-SAW. All right. Well, so what should we know about the beautiful state of Arkansas? Arkansas is known as the natural state. And we boast over 50 state parks. OK, so because when you say natural I'm thinking, does that mean everybody walks around naked? No it doesn't mean that, right? No, not quite that natural. You can find that here! Lots of state parks. That means hills and ... do mountains there? We have mountains in the Ozarks. Oh good, I'm learning so much. This is good, because I've never been to Arkansas. I have to be honest it's not, it's not a place I've been to. But if I go there, well I guess I'm going for the nature, because it's the, nature state or the natural state, which is it? It's the natural state. The natural state, beautiful. And I always like to know if I go to some, some state if there's a, you know, like a typical dish or some kind of specialty or something that people like to eat there that you might not find other places. Well, Arkansas, is actually home of cheese dip. Cheese DIP? Yes, we invented it, or at least we claim it, and it was in Little Rock where it was invented, Oh, do you guys have, like, cheese dip competitions? Yes, we take it very seriously, I guess so! And what, what do people in Arkansas, dip into their cheese dip? Just about anything! Tortilla chips or pretzels, or fried pickles, even! Fried pickles! That's another thing that, I don't know why I've never had a fried pickle. Are they good? They are delicious. Especially when dipped in a nice creamy cheese I suppose! Oh yes! Okay. Oh boy, well, I'm getting kind of hungry. But before we go, are there any unique expressions in Arkansas? I don't know that there are, but I'm always looking for some kind of language thing. Oh yes, let me give you a few. Oh my gosh you've got language things there, OK! Well, of course, I mean, if you’ve got, you got fried pickles in cheese dip, I guess you got everything yeah? So, okay, I'm ready. Just know if a southerner says, “Bless your heart!” that's not a good thing. If they say “Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit!” that IS a good thing. Okay. Bless your heart, kind of is used to ... shut somebody down, is that it? To say like, what does it really mean? Like, Oh, you poor soul! Oh, but that sounds, that sounds sympathetic. Not so much... Okay, and the other one sounded kind of semi-adult. What was that? It was, “Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit!” And that just means. Well, look who's here! Oh man, that's beautiful, that's a good one. Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit! Yeah, that’s perfect. Is that right? Oh good, I did it okay! You did a great job. I’m so proud of myself. Okay, Kat, well thanks very much for your time this has been fun and very educational too. Well thank you for having me. This was very fun. FOLLOW!
If you like this episode you’ll love
Promoted