Peter Orlovsky, poet and partner of Allen Ginsberg, has died

Peter Orlovsky, longtime partner of Allen Ginsberg and a poet in his own right, died May 30 in Vermont of lung cancer. He was 76.

Orlovsky met Ginsberg in San Francisco in 1954, before Ginsberg wrote his seminal poem, "Howl." Published in 1956, "Howl" was the subject of a 1957 obscenity trial that became a landmark free-expression case. Afterward, Ginsberg and Orlovsky moved to Paris, where they stayed with Gregory Corso, William Burroughs and others in a boarding house that would become known as the Beat Hotel.

In the early 1960s, Orlovsky and Ginsberg traveled in India together, where they both became devotees of meditation. It's Orlovsky who provided the smiling, besuited meditation model in the 1984 video below. Ginsberg sings and plays harmonium.

Although they spent time apart, Ginsberg and Orlovsky's relationship endured for more than 30 years. Orlovsky's poetry was collected by City Lights Books in 1977; three of those poems are online. His papers are at the Harry Ransom Center in Texas.

Orlovsky taught at Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, founded by Ginsberg and Anne Waldman in 1974. Waldman was at Orlovsky's bedside when he died. "By his side now, looking into his eyes told out love, I thanked him for his presence in our lives, his poetry his care and love for Allen, his work at Naropa," she wrote. "Ah, I thought a flash of recognition shivering through! slight movement of mouth, light coming in on his handsome face through the window now, and Judy singing om a hum vajra guru padma siddhi hum in crystal voice said 'don’t be afraid.' " Her poetic tribute is best read in its entirety.

-- Carolyn Kellogg
twitter.com/paperhaus

Photo: Peter Orlovsky, right, with Allen Ginsberg in 1978. Credit: Ludwig Urnig via Wikimedia Commons

Comments

[Jim Linderman]

A good man I was proud to have met briefly. Mortality is a horrible invention.

[Em2]

@ Jim Linderman: without mortality, both the "invention" of life and literature would be meaningless.

[Boldts]

Wow that video is horrible.... absolutely horrible.

[aron pieman kay]

i remember peter orlovsky as a great poet in the same vein as that of bob dylan and allen ginsberg...i was honored to have known him and it grieves me to find out he has passed away

[Ben]

The ending of an era is upon us, it's hard to imagine the strength of their personal work in this digital age....

[Jan]

I remember Peter with a bit of poignancy. It was the cold winter of 1971, and Allen was giving a reading at Bennett College in Millbrook, NY. I was a junior at New Paltz at the time and I was a fan of Allen, a huge fan. But that night he burst my bubble. I had driven a bunch of my friends, 5 people crammed into my Volkswagen Beetle, and we were definitely gushing over Allen. We talked him into going back to New Paltz with us for a drink, and he brought his handsome friend with him.

I was very naive, and I had no idea that Allen was a belligerent drunk. It turns out that Peter was a bit of a flirt, and the bartender was an old Beatnik pal of both of them. I knew who Peter Orlovsky was, but didn't know what he looked like. I just thought it was cool that this super handsome older man was chatting me up. I was very flattered, and Allen was getting angrier by the second. Next thing I know he moved between the two of us, clocked me with a right hook under my left eye, and George, the bartender, reached across the bar, grabbed Allen by the collar, and told him to knock it off, and said to Peter, 'you know better, cut it out'. George said, 'Jan, that's Peter Orlovsky! Get lost!' The place was so big and packed it was easy to go missing in a far corner. And he apologized for Allen.

I never really forgave the poet. I was told that a gentleman never hit a lady, and even if I was a hippy hanging out in a very un-ladylike place, I still feel that way. And I shall never forget that super handsome man with the long blond ponytail who made me feel special for a few minutes on that bitter winter night.