Kaddish and Other Poems

Kaddish and Other Poems 1958-1960 (1961) is a book of poems by Allen Ginsberg published by City Lights Bookstore.

The lead poem "Kaddish" also known as "Kaddish for Naomi Ginsberg (1894-1956)", was written in two parts written by Beat writer Allen Ginsberg, was first published in Kaddish and Other Poems 1958-1960. The book was part of the Pocket Poet Series published by City Lights Books. In the table of contents, the poem is titled "Kaddish: Proem, narrative, hymmnn, lament, litany, & fugue". Along with Ginsberg's "Howl", Kaddish is said to be one of his greatest masterpieces.

Ginsberg wrote the poem about his mother Naomi after her death in 1956, who struggled with mental problems throughout her life. Naomi suffered many psychotic episodes both before Allen was born and while he was growing up. She went in and out of mental hospitals and was treated with medication, insulin shock therapy, and electroshock therapy. She died in an asylum in 1956.

The title "Kaddish" refers to the mourning prayer or blessing in Judaism. This long poem was Ginsberg's attempt to mourn his mother, Naomi, but also reflects his sense of loss at his estrangement from his born religion. The traditional Kaddish contains no references to death, whereas Ginsberg's poem is riddled with thoughts and questionings of death.

After her death, a rabbi would not allow the traditional Kaddish to be read with Ginsberg's Christian and Atheist friends, so he rebelled and wrote a Kaddish of his own. Ginsberg began writing the poem in the Beat Hotel in Paris in December 1957 and completed it in New York in 1959.

Ginsberg wrote a screenplay based on the poem. Robert Frank was to direct it, but money could not be raised for the project.

In 1972, Robert Kalfin adapted the screenplay for the stage and produced it at the Chelsea Theater Center at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The play explored Naomi Ginsberg's schizophrenic collapse and made use of innovative video for flashback scenes.

There is a detailed description of this production and of behind-the-scenes incidents surrounding it in Davi Napoleon's chronicle of the Chelsea in Chelsea on the Edge: The Adventures of an American Theater (1991). The stage version was also staged at the Habima Theater in Israel, translated by Nathan Zach and starring Yoram Khatav as Allen and Gila Almagor as Naomi.

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