New Stanzas for Amazing Grace
I dreamed I dwelled in a homeless place
Where I was lost alone
Folk looked right through me into space
And passed with eyes of stone
O homeless hand on many a street
Accept this change from me
A friendly smile or word is sweet
As fearless charity
Woe workingman who hears the cry
And cannot spare a dime
Nor look into a homeless eye
Afraid to give the time
So rich or poor no gold to talk
A smile on your face
The homeless ones where you may walk
Receive amazing grace
I dreamed I dwelled in a homeless place
Where I was lost alone
Folk looked right through me into space
And passed with eyes of stone
April 2, 1994
Composed at the request of Ed Sanders for his production of The New Amazing
Grace, performed November 20, 1994, at the Poetry Project in St. Mark’s Church
in-the-Bouwerie
Copyright Credit: Allen Ginsberg. “New Stanzas for Amazing Grace” from Death & Fame: Last Poems 1993-1997, by Allen Ginsberg. Copyright © 1999 by The Allen Ginsberg Trust, and used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Source: Death & Fame: Last Poems 1993-1997 (HarperCollins Publishers Inc, 1999)