The Collected Poems of Ted Berrigan Read Online Free PDF

pleasure of movement across the page. He is saying, “This is what we do. This is living, taking its walk.” It is a very gentle message, that of the walk through time, laid alongside the message that all time is simultaneous. But, also,
    No-mind
    No messages
    (Inside)
    Thanksgiving             1969
    (“ IN MY ROOM ”)

    ALICE NOTLEY
    PARIS , 2004
    1 .
Mad-Libs
, an offshoot of
Mad
magazine, contained fill-in-the-blank and multiple-choice do-it-yourself versions of country songs, comedy routines, anecdotes, and so forth.

Chronology
1934
Born on November 15 in Providence, Rhode Island, to Margaret Dugan Berrigan and Edmund Joseph Berrigan, the oldest of four children, with Rick, Kathy, and Johnny to follow. His father, Ed, was chief maintenance engineer at the Ward Baking Company Plant, and his mother, Peggy, was a bookkeeper and cashier in the public schools lunch program.
1952
Graduated from La Salle Academy.
1953
Attended Providence College. In Ted’s own words he was educated in the “Catholic school system, first by the Sisters of Mercy, then at La Salle Academy with the Christian Brothers, and for one year under the Dominicans at Providence College.”
1954
Joined the army, spending sixteen months in Korea, stationed at Uijongbu, between 1954 and 1955.
1955
Was transferred to Tulsa, having attained the rank of sergeant (SP3) and having received a good conduct medal. Began studies at the University of Tulsa on the GI Bill.
1957
Discharged from active duty and placed in the reserves.
1958
Ted’s father, Ed Berrigan, died.
1958–59
Taught eighth grade at Madalene School in Tulsa.
1959
Met Ron Padgett, Dick Gallup, and Joe Brainard. (Already knew David Bearden, Pat Mitchell, Marge Kepler, and others.)
A Lily for My Love
was published in Providence. “The guys in the neighborhood bar had chipped in and paid for the printing” (Ron Padgett,
Ted: A Personal Memoir of Ted Berrigan
[Great Barrington, Mass.: The Figures, 1993]). Received a BA in Literature from the University of Tulsa.
1960–61
Wrote a postcard to Frank O’Hara, beginning their association. Moved to New York in the same time period as Pat Mitchell, Brainard, Gallup, and Padgett. Met O’Hara.
1962
Finished his master’s thesis, “The Problem of How to Live as Dealt with in Four Plays by George Bernard Shaw.” Upon receiving his MA from the University of Tulsa, he returned it with the note, “I am the master of no art.” Met Kenneth Koch during Koch’s office hours at Columbia. Took one semester of classical Greek at Columbia; earned money writing papers for Columbia students. Met and married Sandra Alper in New Orleans over the course of a weekend, traumatic difficulties ensuing with Sandy’s family. Began writing
The Sonnets
.
1963
Finished
The Sonnets
in July. David Berrigan born. Began editing
“C” (A Journal of Poetry)
, published by Lorenz and Ellen Gude, which would run for thirteen issues and two comic strip issues and feature many senior New York School poets as well as Ted’s contemporaries. “C” further spawned “C” Books in 1964, published by the Gudes during the 60s, producing a total of eleven booklets in mimeo format by new writers (and continuing into the 70s under Ted’s sole proprietorship). Most of the art in
“C”
was by Joe Brainard, with the occasional cover by Andy Warhol. This was and would be a period of intense friendship and collaboration with Padgett, and Gallup, as well as one of artistic collaboration with Brainard. But by 1963 Ted knew Johnny Stanton, Joe Ceravolo, Tom Veitch, Jim Brodey, Harry Fainlight, Tony Towle, Lorenzo Thomas, and other writers of his generation. At the same time Ed Sanders was editing and publishing his journal,
Fuck You/A Magazine of the Arts
, and Sanders and Ted “spent a lot of time together.” The social aspect of Ted’s life had become all-encompassing and non-parochial and would remain that wayfor the rest of his life. As he said in the 1973 “Interview