Passively

MoMA. MuSeUm Of MoDeRn ArT. AlLeN gInSbErG. I AM A VICTIM OF TELEPHONES.

The telephone interrupts. It interrupts his sleep. It interrupts his relationships. It interrupts his friendships. It forms his friendships. It continues his friendships. Friends call. It does not discriminate. Boy or girl, thick or thin. It reaffirms loneliness. He is alone. He sleeps on a pallet. A crude bed. It interrupts his sleep. It requests his work. It creates discontinuity. It is polite. It is vulgar. The telephone interrupts. Allen Ginsberg is a victim of the telephone.

The telephone is a character who acts to remind Ginsberg of all of his duties within the world. His duties to his tired self are interrupted by the telephone telling him to do his other duties. When friends call, when bosses call, when anyone calls, it is the telephone that is interrupting with its singing of bells. It is not the duty itself that is interrupting. The poem is a stream of consciousness kind of piece that flows from one disconnected thought to the next in a cohesive, fast-paced account of Ginsberg’s struggle to deal with the constant and varying interruptions from the telephone.

ThE tElEpHoNe InTeRrUpTs AlLeN gInSbErG aS hE sLeEpS oN hIs CrUdE bEd.

You listen passively as Ginsberg relays his tale of the telephone. It interrupts his life as he passively listens to the phone ring, as you passively listen to his tale.

~LCS