The following notes to the poems in White Shroud originally appeared in Selected Poems 1947–1995. (HarperCollins Publishers, 1996). More exten sive notes to this section can be found online at www.allenginsberg.org.
850 Ven. Chögyam Trungpa, Vajracarya’s Shambhala Arts included mind training with Archery (Kyudo), Calligraphy, Tea Ceremony, etc.
851 MIRROR STREET: Dadaist original Cabaret Voltaire was on Zürich’s Spiegelgasse Strasse.
851 RUTHERFORD: William Carlos Williams. Manhattan: Charles Reznikoff.
851 CHICAGO’S TEARGAS SKIES: 1968 Democratic convention police riot.
851 UNBORN: Buddhist metaphor, universe & consciousness are “unborn,” i.e. not traceable back to any ultimate birthplace, source, cause.
851 ROOTLESS COSMOPOLITAN: Aesopean Stalinist word for Jew.
863 Buddhist Samatha-Vipassana Sitting Practice of Meditation instructions according to the Ven. Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche. See his Meditation in Action (Boston: Shambhala Press, 1991).
863 UNCLE DON: 1930s U.S. radio father-figure tale-teller.
885 PARAQUAT: Agricultural poison dust sprayed by U.S. on Sonora, Mexico, cannabis fields.
889 TIVOLI FARM: Catholic Worker. Contemplative rural commune founded 1930s by Dorothy Day, celebrated saint-like bohemian Catholic Pacifist.
890 SPRY OLD LADY: Here several of Berenice Abbott Changing New York Depression era photographs are described, from “buses” to “shoes.”
908 After Rewi Alley’s Bai Juyi: 200 Selected Poems (Beijing: New World Press, 1983), p. 303.
909 The Secret of the Golden Lotus and Meditation Cushion of the Flesh, Chinese classic erotic handbooks.
909 JIANG JI: See latter’s text & Gary Snyder’s reply poem 1984.
909 QIN SHI HUANG: Emperor 2nd century BC, burned all Buddhist & Classic books.