Departures is KCET's hyper-local web documentary, community engagement tool and digital literacy program about the cultural history of Los Angeles' neighborhoods.

America, by Philomene Long

by
on April 3, 2011 9:53 AM

Philomene Long - America

Philomene Long reciting America at the Venice Grind (starts at 0:59). Recording by Pegarty Long. Below is another poem by Philomene Long, Ghosts of Venice West.

Ghosts of Venice West

They are already ghosts
John and Philomene
As they pass
Along the Boardwalk
Where ghosts and poets overlap
As they pass, the gulls
Ghosting above their shadows

Everything's haunting everything

Already ghosts
John and Philomene
Under the ghostly lampposts
Of Venice West
Their cadence
The breath of sleep
At rest
Lost at the edge of America
Already ghosts
And each poem
Already a farewell

Everything's haunting everything
The sea is the ghost of the world

Philomene Long was a poet prominent in the Venice Beat movement during the 1950s and 1960s married to poet John Thomas.


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