HAROLD NORSE AND THE BEAT HOTEL

The hotel, the patronne Madame Rachou and the stair well.
Owing to the less stringent laws in force at the time,
the smoking of hashish and marijuana was, among some
of the residents, a social activit y like any other in the hotel.
The distinctive smell would, day or night, drift from
someof the ill-fitting doors on to the stairs..beat Hotel

Harold Norse was part of the magical interlude of "The Beat Hotel". Along with William Burroughs and Brion Gysin he playe d a pivotal part in the seeds that led to cyberspace.

Excerpts from "Beat Hotel":

"Bob sat up straight in bed, straining to listen. Nothing. Voices crackled as from an old radio and figures strirred in some numb echo-chamber of his brain, like newspapers down a windy street. He felt enclosed in a soundproof room. He had no idea where he was. He looked around without comprehension, not even knowing what city he was in. Low rapid monologue, nervous whisper of junk journey, endless trips -- "... in Tangier, for example, I dug Arabic from Hebrew -- same language you see -- you get these programs from Radio Cario -- I can tell what they're saying -- school broadcasts for example: Little Mohammed, says teacher, what do you do when you meet a Jew? Kill him. Little Mohammed, what do you do when you meet two Jews? I call ten Arabs to kill 'em...Good-natured laughter and applause. Like Little Mohammed is six years old, dig. And didja know Jews ain't allowed to ride camels because that way they're higher than an Arab...?"
"Aladdin and Titania still in Tangier?"
"Too stoned to move...three years in the Casbah..empty palace..mosaicwalls...six kids...rush mats...a cat...a groundhog..nah, I forgot...somebody ate the groundhog...made groundhog soup..."
"Man, all they ever eat is brownies, majoun brownies...hash, honey, sesame seeds, anise, dates, cinnamon...check runs out each month...the bread goes for hash and grass...even the kids are stoned...contact high...they were conceived high, Aladdin says.,.those little girls giggle all the time...lean against each other for support and giggle...never talk ..."
"Aladdin don't say much...and Titania...has any one ever heard her say a word?"
"They're living in the UNIVERSE, man...no gas...no water...no electricity...only the blinding light of the void...in hotel universe...hotel nirvana..."
"Blue dream of space...celestial flash of blue light in crystal blue silence...on blue mosaic floors...lattice light on silent mosaic heads..."
"Aladdin's a joint machine...sits and rolls till he's catatonic...a holyroller...shit is his religion...best dealer in Tangier...you always get a good count."
"Yeh, best mind in the business...except for Leary..."
"They're buddies...on the astral plane...Communicate via astral post office... Saves money in stamps ...."

Angry with journalists who called the hotel a "flea-bag shrine", Harold Norse used their expression to prophesy;"The flea-bag shrine will be documented by art historians".

Patrick Shelley, the English sensualist painter, and AllenGinsberg, Room 25. Christmas 1956.
Shelley introduced me to the Beat Hotel in the winter of that year.

Light Control Panel for each of the rooms in the Beat Hotel.

The bulb glowed dimly or brightlyaccording to the amount

of electricity beiing used.

photographer Harold Chapman

HAROLD NORSE

Queer Beat Poet

Political activist and writer Born 1916, New York City. B.A., Brooklyn College 1938; M.A., New York University 1951. At age 22 in 1939 he became a member of W. H. Auden's inner circle, cited by scholar/critic Nicholas Jenkins in The New Yorker, April 1, 1996. William Carlos Williams called him "the best poet of your generation." The 10-year correspondence between Norse and Williams (1951-1961) was published by Bright Tyger, San Francisco 1990. [...]
That year City Lights published Norse's Hotel Nirvana: Selected Poems, establishing him among the leading Beat poets. He was nominated for the 1974 National Book Award.Norse lived in the "Beat Hotel" in Paris, 1960-63, with William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso. There he wrote his experimental cut-up novel, Beat Hotel, published in German by Maro Verlag, Augsburg 1973, now in its 30th printing. [...]
With Carnivorous Saint: Gay Poems 1941-1976, Gay Sunshine Press 1977, Norse became the leading gay liberation poet. His Memoirs of a Bastard Angel (William Morrow), 1989, preface by James Baldwin, further established his reputation. [...]Norse has produced 12 books of poetry and 3 of prose. He has received 2 NEA poetry grants and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Poetry Association.

Classic Frieze in a Garage

I was walking thru the city past umberembassies

& pine-lined palaces

fat palms beside balconies

the heat something

you could really touch

the kids with cunning

delinquent faces

after american sailors

-thinking of nerval tends-moi le pausilippe

et la mer d'Italie & living

on the hill posillipo under

a gangster's dancefloor

among goldfinches

on the bay of naples

in a stone cottage

over tufa caves in which the sea

crashed in winter sweet gerad

one hundred years

have made the desolation greater

the tower is really down & the sun blackened

beyond despair the loudspeaker drowns

finches cliffs caves

all in the hands of racketeers

yet i have passed my time dreaming thru this

fantastic wreck

walking thru incendiary alleys of crowded laundry

with yellow gourds in windows &

crumbling masonry of wars

human corruption

so thick and hopeless that i laugh

when suddenly i saw among the oil & greasy rags

& wheels & axles of a garage

the carved nude figures of

a classic frieze

there above the dismantled

parts of cars!

perfect! & how strange! garage

swallows sarcophagus!

mechanic calmly spraying

paint on a

fender

observed in turn by lapith and centaury

flow

of unthinking flesh!

frank thighs!eyes

of aphrodite!

the myth of the mediterranean

was in that garage

where the brown wiry

youths saw nothing unusual

at their work

among dead heroes & gods

but i saw hermes in the rainbow

of the dark oil on the floor

reflected there

& the wild hair of the sybil

as her words bubbled

mad and drowned

beneath the motor's roar

TAROT

Heinrick Ulrick

(Nurremberg
approx. 1572 - 1621)
The Jester-Etching

THE ALLEGORIES OF THE TAROTS
The allegories which appear on the trump cards belong to the iconographical tradition common to most of Europe from the 13th century. They may be found in the decorations of the Gothic cathedrals, in the frescoes of public buildings, and in encyclopaedic and astrological manuscripts. In practice, the figures represented on the cards of the Triumphs are a real Biblia Pauperum, that means a "the Poor men's Bible". Playing the cards, people directly drew from these a knowledge of the Christian mysticism and its contents, concepts that were continually recalled in their minds, according to the method of the Ars Memoriae of the time. They may be readily interpreted by reference to the cultural context of the courts of northern Italy, and their taste for moralizing images derived both from religious tradition and classical mythology. For the ancient gods continued to play a role in medieval Christian culture, even though their characters were different from those of the original divinities.On the one hand, they were held to be civilizing heroes who taught men many arts, like Minerva, the first weaver, or Apollo, the medical god. On the other hand, they were interpreted as allegories of virtue and vice, and it is in this sense that they appear on some of theTarot cards. Obvious examples include Strength, represented by the mythical Hercules as he destroys the Nemean Lion - the symbol of animal instinct; Love, represented as Cupid ready to launch his darts against incautious lovers; Prudence, represented by Saturn; and the Modesty of Diana, the Immodesty of Venus, the Truth of Apollo illuminating Earth with the disc of the sun.Many Tarot figures clearly employ Christian iconography. For example, the World is sometimes represented by the Celestial Jerusalem placed inside a sphere supported by angels or dominated by Celestial Glory. The card bearing the Popess, identical to that in Giotto's frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, derives from the image of Faith. Amongst many other possible examples, representations of virtues such as Temperance, Justice and Fortitude echo the classical iconography to be found in the sculpture of Gothic cathedrals or the minatures of the sacred books.Other sources of inspiration include ancient astrological treatises. The figure of the Bagatto, or Juggler, appears among the Children of the Moon - that is to say, the trades which are influenced by the moon. The Misero, or Fool, is found among the Children of Saturn, the Lovers among the Children of Venus, the Pope among the Children of Jupiter, and the Emperor among the Children of the Sun. Moreover, astrologers appear in several packs of trumps as representations of the Moon or the Stars.Lastly, there are images drawn from everyday life. An extremely interesting example is the figure of the Hanged Man, which refers to the punishment inflicted upon traitors.In the Bolognini Chapel of the church of San Petronio in Bologna an identical figure is represented in a fresco by Giovanni da Modena as the retaliation punishment for idolaters, since idolatry was considered the most awful kind of betrayal because addressed to the disownment of the Creator. Although the punishment of hanging by a leg has been represented in other works, the San Petronio fresco is the only known example which concides perfectly with the Tarot card.


AN INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONunder the patronage ofMinistry for the Cultural and Environmental Heritage and Foreign Office Protocol no. 16638 dated January 1995LE TAROT Cultural Trust for Historical Studies and ResearchStradello Cappuccini 14 - 48018 FAENZA - ItalyTel & Fax +39.546.661143 / cell. +39.335.5619171info@associazioneletarot.it / letarot@virgilio.ithttp://www.blogger.com/www.associazioneletarot.it

ELETRIC VERSES

.....................street light & night time cities

Photo Gallery by arn at pbase.com

Electric Verses---------- bothFinnish and Swedish speaking. The site contains their

poetry in the original and translations into other languages.

EIRA STENBERG

Born in Tampere. Five collections of poetry, novels, radio plays, children's books and plays. Studied at the Sibelius Academy.

To talk of love…

the thing you can't talk about
the cul-de-sac of a looking-glass
with someone hanging upside down
from an invisible tree,
legs wrapped round a branch,
apparently grappling with gravity
and opening a mouthno cry comes out of…

Or to talk as if
love were a door
with a key called longing
and behind the door a tree flamed
into visibility,
a foetus straightened its legs and dived
up to the surface
and spoke to you the juggler,
who toss your head from hand to hand like dice,
and brought you a fresh leaf
after the deluge.

JUHANI AHVENJÄRVI

He living in Tampere. He has worked as teacher of creative writing in the University of Tampere and other places. He made his debut in 1992 in the anthology Ryhmä 92 -Group 92, edited by Jyrki Kiiskinen and Kari Levola-. Since that he has published three collections of poems, the latest of which, Yhä kiihtyvä tauko, came out in 2005.

There is no hope.
The image we
have of the eye
stays open

HELENA SINERVO

-1961 published her first collection of poems, Lukemattomiin (Untold), in 1994. Since that she has published six more. Sinervo has translated poems by Elizabeth Bishop and Yves Bonnefoy and written the lyrics for Liisa Lux’ debut song album (2002).

If the wind cannot recall, can you?

The one I thought of a thousand times
at the first hour, a thousand times at the second ,
could not recall me at all,
although the wind recalled its windward
a thousand times at the first hour, a thousand times at the second ,
and still at the third hour,
when the rooster had crowed thrice,
did the wind recall its windward
searching for early traces, covered in reminiscence.

JYRKI KIISKINEN

worked as editor in chief in the Nuori Voima literary magazine in 1991-1994 and Books from Finland in 1995-2000. He is one of the most important literary figures of his generation. He has published five collections of poems, three novels and three children’s books. He was awarded the Eino Leino Prize in 1992, Kalevi Jäntti Prize in 1994 and Yleisradio’s (the equivalent of the BBC) Tanssiva Karhu (Dancing Bear) Prize in 2000.

No one

So green that no one,
no one can say it
so green that the grass, the stand of pine trees
the clump of alders
cannot hide it
cannot describe
no one can describe it
so yellow that the dandelion, the
sun, so bright
that the water
that the light cannot break it
so deep, so warm, so quiet
is it
that no one can understand it
so icy, so dumb, so deep
is it

LEEVI LEHTO

- 1951- has published five collections of poems, Muuttunut tuuli -Changed Wind, 1967-, Rakkauden puheesta (Of Speech of Love, 1969-Ihan toinen iankaikkisuus -Quite Another Eternity, 1991- Kielletyt leikit -Forbidden Games, 1994- and Ääninen -1997- He also has published the novel Janajevin unet -Yanayev’s Dreams, 1992- and worked as translator, translating John Ashbery’s Flow Chart -Vuokaavio, 1994- among others.

You (I)
But I will couple you with the spring sky.
I have eaten angel flesh, drunk the moon from the sky,
visited China in a dream and returned to the kitchen at night:
to be my own son and close the cupboard door.

JORGE RIECHMANN

Alliance

An entire forest has come back from
your neck tonight,
I saw a conciliator,
friend, strongly favor
possible, you were sleeping
upon the severity of recent
days. I did not wake me refresh
your pulse.
The signs seem clear:
We can assist in time together
Two of the god, the three other
case. It is now time not to forget
the dreams.

2
Sniff
as well.
There are sweat as honey,
There is wheat and soil. I see and hear
resonant
as well. You know so well enjoy.
While preserving instincts of the flower to the
fruit. I see and I hear you breathe
again
I called you at our table of wind.

3
I dreamed
the salvation of your sweat
advocate
our common privacy
before the ravages of this bloody
sky
receipt
Freedom in your body marking
the slight pleasure prosody
I dreamed
the salvation of your sweat.

4

Then on the edge of the shadow
dance
illuminated by white slow,
beautiful,
strongly live, knowing all
the pores
and all the wrinkles of pleasure,
It is true that the death, but only
begins tomorrow.

Of "mobile equipment" and "Book of Berlin":

Absent
Encounter with the
angel
Unbelief

Poem of the meeting
Three times
awakening

From "Song of erosion:

Abolish the nostalgia
You
Get rid of your vertebrae tame
Sleep a bit longer, gardener adorable ...
At dawn she always just left
Trace of a body

From "Hope violent":
Absence of a friend in ZamoraT
he most beautiful dress
The lover 2
Heading
The smoothness of love



Jorge Riechmann Fernández

Born in Madrid in 1962. Degree in mathematics from the Universidad Complutense, studied philosophy, German literature and political science. Professor of moral philosophy at the University of Barcelona since 1995, editor of the magazine "Meanwhile" , translator of French literature and German. He is considered by critics as one of the best examples of Spanish poetry of recent decades. Awards: Poetry Hyperion in 1987, Feria del Libro de Madrid in 1993, National Poetry Villafranca del Bierzo 1996 jaen Poetry in 1997 and 2000 awards: International Poetry of Gabriel Celaya Translation and Stendhal. Following publications: "Song of erosion"-1987, "Cuaderno de Berlin"-1989, "Rolling stock" - 1993, "Both in April in October", "The cut under the skin 'and' Dance an alien "- 1994, 'Figure of yourself', 'Hope violent" and "The truth is a fire where ardemos", containing poems of the eighties ,published in "Amarte No Return" in 1995.

PASTORA PAVÓN Y GARCIA LORCA