At BOMB: The Time Allen Ginsberg Bombed

In the new issue of BOMB, Matthew J. Abrams implores us to recall Allen Ginsberg bombing (and not) in front of nearly 30,000 people atop the pitcher’s mound of Candlestick Park in San Francisco. "The sly, sixty-eight-year-old poet had chosen to recite 'Hum Bom!'—his highly repetitive sound poem that lasts nearly four minutes and consists mostly of various arrangements of hum and bomb, typically incanted by Ginsberg in zesty, emotive screams." More:

...To many Giants fans, likely more attuned to the metrical subtleties of an off-color limerick than the nasty pops and snarls of Ginsberg’s atonal, unrhymed, stutter-stepping verse, it must have been a surreal show. Imagine the die-hard fan on that cool San Francisco night; he finds his seat, settles down with his beer, hot dog, and scorebook, and impatiently waits for the various pre-game rituals to end. Someone is announced—the guest of honor—and a small, scraggly haired man wearing a blazer and a well-stocked pocket protector approaches the mound. None of this particularly intrigues the fan. But not what happens next. Before throwing the ceremonial “first pitch”—a time-honored ceremony in baseball—this little man begins screaming queer phrases, which boom and echo through the stadium’s massive PA system. What confusion must have reigned while fans and players alike were subjected to 124 lines like the following:

Whom bomb?
We bomb’d them!
Whom bomb?
We bomb’d them!
[…] 
Saddam said he hadda bomb! 
Bush said he better bomb! 
Saddam said he hadda bomb! 
Bush said he better bomb! 
[…] 
Armageddon for the mob 
Gog & Magog Gog & Magog 
Armageddon for the mob
Gog & Magog Gog & Magog

Writers have long found something lyrical, if not downright metrical, about baseball... 

Find the full piece at BOMB.