A Thanksgiving Prayer From Old Uncle Bill!!!!

[Dave The Dov]

William S. Burroughs that is!!!!


Thanks for the wild turkey and
the passenger pigeons, destined
to be shit out through wholesome
American guts.


Thanks for a continent to despoil
and poison.


Thanks for Indians to provide a
modicum of challenge and
danger.

Thanks for vast herds of bison to
kill and skin leaving the
carcasses to rot.

Thanks for bounties on wolves
and coyotes.

Thanks for the American dream,
To vulgarize and to falsify until
the bare lies shine through.

Thanks for the KKK.

For nigger-killin' lawmen,
feelin' their notches.

For decent church-goin' women,
with their mean, pinched, bitter,
evil faces.

Thanks for "Kill a Queer for
Christ" stickers.

Thanks for laboratory AIDS.

Thanks for Prohibition and the
war against drugs.

Thanks for a country where
nobody's allowed to mind the
own business.

Thanks for a nation of finks.

Yes, thanks for all the
memories-- all right let's see
your arms!

You always were a headache and
you always were a bore.

Thanks for the last and greatest
betrayal of the last and greatest
of human dreams.
_________________
Mercedes 430

[Doreen Peri]

Thanks for the KKK.

For nigger-killin' lawmen,
feelin' their notches.

A perfect example of why I don't *get* Burroughs.

Is he being sarcastic, or what?

Sounds like blatant bigotry to me.

[Dave The Dov]

He's incorporating everything doreen.
_________________
stimulus package

[Doreen Peri]

He's incorporating everything?

I don't get it.

What does that mean?

Is he REALLY thankful for the KKK?

Or is he being sarcastic?

If he's really thankful for an organization which has the sole purpose of HATRED and destruction, I have a major problem with it.

That's just totally unacceptable to me.

If he's being sarcastic, how can you tell?

You mean he's being thankful for EVERYTHING, no matter how ugly some of those things are?

Is that the theme of the poem?

I'm sorry.... I don't understand it.

[Doreen Peri]

Thanks for laboratory AIDS.

He MUST be being sarcastic.

There's no other answer...

Unless he was a sicko...

Maybe I'm not too good at analyzing poetry of this style.

I don't like the poem.

*shrug*

I'm just trying to understand it.

Hey, don't mind me... I couldn't wade through "Junkie" or "Naked Lunch" and "Queer"

all three of them bored me silly....

[Dave The Dov]

Ahhhh doreen I enjoyed reading "Junky". I was never bored by it at all. As for "Thanksgiving Prayer" you just have to take it as is. That's the best way that I can describe it to you. I posted this on Litkicks when I first came acrossed it. Now I posted it on Studio and MOOL as well. It's something that I do around this time.
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Honda CBR600F

[Doreen Peri]

OK. So, Burroughs wrote a poem called "Thanksgiving Prayer" and since it's near Thanksgiving, you like to post it on the internet. That's cool. What's not cool to me is some of the content which sounds hateful. How can someone be thankful for an organization like the KKK? It's GOT to be sarcasm! That's what I'm trying to determine. If he was truly thankful for the KKK and for AIDs, well, Dave, you and I HAVE to agree that his thinking was really .... umm.... how shall I say it?... Ignorant and bigoted and sick. No, he must have been being sarcastic. I hope, anyway.... I'd hate to think this really WAS a prayer!

Here's a Thanksgiving poem I wrote in 2002

I think this one has much more of a positive outlook, which is what Thanksgiving is all about.... being grateful for the GOOD things in life.

____________________

I.

This Time is different.
This Time is different.

There is the Giving
Of Thanks, there is the
Thanks for the Giving;
There is the Living Thank You.
The Thanks, Living,
Giving the day
A deep sigh of Ever.

There is the Never,
Absolved and done,
The Here Now won;
There is the Coming Home,
Loam receptive to believing.
There is the leaving behind
And the finding.
There is the Tome
Being written,
The binding being
Typeset.
There is the
No Regrets, the
Hasn't Happened Yets, the
Fire. There is Inspired Breathing,
Art in Voice. There is Choice and
Victory. This Time is different,
Each second eternal, each
Thanks, Giving air.
This Time is different,
There is Hope.

There is a Father singing.
There is a Brother bringing
Friendship. There is a Husband
Soon known. There is a son yearning.
There is a daughter grateful.
There is the burning of Desire.
There are Fateful Designs and
Signs from Heaven shown.

This Time is different, the
Thanks Giving brilliant,
Resilient in its harvest.
Reaping Belief.

II.

what can I say about giving thanks? can i wax
the candle dim, trimmed from the top after the dripping
of a gift? what can i possibly form or create or sate the possible
literary content? is there any way to represent
thankfulness? this is the harvest and feast.
i please myself with what is true.
i thank you for you.

there is deciduous greenery.
sometimes the scenery is dismal.
light, this time of year, becomes dim.
greys take away mornings with wonder.
there is no thunder
which preceeds
a snowstorm.

and yet
there are norms
opposed by eccentric whims,
forms of fluid responses within
dreamscapes brushed with the wet
sense of a touch of sable, capable of
bringing buildings down.

and then there is the sound
when hitting
ground

zero is
clearly echoed
while we are running neck to neck
with ourselves, racing to catch up

i am thankful
there is a silver or gold
or pewter or plastic
cup to win

i am just at the beginning
of my brave adventure.
i am thankful for the road.
i am thankful for the journey, telling and told.
i am thankful for the young, thankful for the old.
i am thankful for wisdom and brief revelry
of praise. i am thankfrul for amazing
woodwinds and piccalos. i am thankful
for piano, thankful for my daughter's hand
in mine, walking in line back to front,
not looking, moving forward on ice.

twice the sun
has taken me in eclipse
and yet i thank the dawning
and yet i thank the dawning
and yet i thank
the miracle
of chess

oh how friends can come and go and yes
i thank the wind for making it so

and finally i am seen
finally i am whole
i thank the goodness of
the giving told that i could
posssibly be
a recipient
of such praise

i am amazed
and thank the earth
for birth, each phase of it
i hope
to phrase
with prayer
there is nothing to believe
anywhere unless you believe
the sky can capture you

i am raptured
with the True
Fuse of fervent yes.
and if you haven't guessed yet,
i'll spell it out for you

i am in
thanks
giving
thanks
for you

[Dave The Dov]

I'm thankful that you wrote this wonderful poem doreen and posted so that anyone and everyone can read it and be enlighten by your words as well!!!!! You're the best!!!!
_________________
the global economy

[Doreen Peri]

Thank you, Dave, for thanking me for my thankful poem. I am thankful that you enjoyed it.

[Dave The Dov]

With that let us now eat!!!! Hey I got the wishbone!!!! Let's you and I make a wish shall we????
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Lung / Respiratory Disorders Forum

[hester_prynne]

Ah Uncle Bill.
A cornucopia of sour grapes and wilted fruit.
A half empty glass and a solid defense for keeping it that way.
The poor sot.
I myself find Thanksgiving to be quite tolerable.
It's christmas I really can't stand.

Wonderful Poem Doreen! I wish Uncle Bill himself could read it.
I imagine he'd be too weak though.
He never struck me as being anything but a weak man, excessively overusing sarcasm for strength. Yikes. It is a bore.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy sharing of food and hearth.
(I'm always up for that!)
H

[perezoso]

Come on gals, Burroughsian irony may be a bit harsh but it's not a bad little rant. Yes, it's "sarcastic" if you like. Burroughs is not a sentimentalist. He sees the hypocrisy of fat american daddies sitting down with their little creep families and obedient seed receptacle wifey to stuff their faces with food. IF you like comforting and happy fiction you are not going to dig Burroughs much, though Junky is not a bad piece of writing. Nor is Cities of the Red Night, if you can get over a few scenes of boys ejaculating as they hang from gibbets....Bill B. is really quite tame compared to say the Marquis De Sade.

Merry Marquismas!

[hester_prynne]

He's a whiny bastard that was good with words. How easy is that?
His excessive sarcasm reveals his unprocessed anger and childish arrogance. I may have liked him more when I myself was younger and more selfish, immature. He had no idea of anything much beyond his own misery. What a bore. I don't think he ever got conscious of that.
I'm glad I grew out of that phase. Despite my own miseries, I have some thankfulness, though, I too, am very aware of the massive hypocrisy we live amidst.

In fact, I'm feeling very good this year about this Thanksgiving. They'll be no one at my table who isn't dearly loved and admired.
That's what means the most to me. Being with them.
I guess I have become an old sentimental fogie.
And thass okay wid me!
Cheers
H

[judih]

i like burroughs' take on Thanksgiving and it's still cool that the USA births those who say what they mean from the Bill to the 'sentimental fogies' who brandish love and gratitude when the calendar says it's time.

Holidays strike me as peculiar. A year goes by same as always till the clock strikes Day for remembering or Day for feeling lovingkindness.

Without such days, would the mass population never feel these moments? Strange to me.

Still, last year, (or 2 yrs ago?) tried to post the Bill Burroughs Thanksgiving at AC and they warned me about breaking copyright.

i love that the poem's here, alongside your poem, Doreen. Words are tools with which we say what we feel.

That's a reason for thanksgiving. That's why those original dudes left Europe for the free world. Too bad they wiped out aborigines, showing they were just as barbaric as the old Europeans, but what can you do?

Still, i'm thankful every day that a place for democracy flourished and that other countries are picking up the message.

judih

[Lightning Rod]

most of you know about my fascination with Burroughs

http://stormpages.com/gitdown/PookahPapers.htm

I'm writing a novel featuring him as a main character