Train Ride

by Ted Berrigan

Poetry. Cover art and design by Joe Brainard. First printed in 1979 using letterpress and handbinding, this second printing is limited to 999 copies and is a digital facsimile of that first edition, 7 inches tall by 5 inches wide (except for updates to the colophon and copyright pages)."TRAIN RIDE, subtitled 'February 18th, 1971: for Joe [Brainard],' is a long poem in the tradition of Herodotus, Goethe, Laurence Sterne, Agatha Christie, & Blaise Cendrars--a poem of the travails & pleasures of travel, truly of the late 20th century in that its verbal events are more internal than 'Out the Window / is / Out to Lunch!!'--one of the results of the developments of industrial capitalism initiated by steam engine and rail-way...Thus we have a great deal of hypothetical & remembered fucking, money, friendship--'amistad'--and, indeed throughout, witty & precise meditation on the act of writing itself. The persona that emerges is the 'poet in the state of surprise' (Apollinaire), a saintly yet human figure, addressing us with wonderful Peruvian 'I'd be a terrific Senator / because I'd love it' ... The 'Our Friends' section is a marvelous catalog of prominence... One could go on cataloging the delights of the one would be wiser to simply urge all who can run & read to take it, with Ted Berrigan, a Great Companion."--Anselm Hollo

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1971

About the author

Berrigan was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 15, 1934. After high school, he spent a year at Providence College before joining the U.S. Army. After three years in the Army, he finished his college studies at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma, where he received a BA in English in 1959 and fell just short of the requirements for a M.A. in 1962. Berrigan was married to Sandy Berrigan, also a poet, and they had two children, David Berrigan and Kate Berrigan. He and his second wife, the poet Alice Notley, were active in the poetry scene in Chicago for several years, then moved to New York City, where he edited various magazines and books.

A prominent figure in the second generation of the New York School of Poets, Berrigan was peer to Jim Carroll, Anselm Hollo, Alice Notley, Ron Padgett, Anne Waldman, Bernadette Mayer, and Lewis Warsh. He collaborated with Padgett and Joe Brainard on Bean Spasms, a work significant in its rejection of traditional concepts of ownership. Though Berrigan, Padgett, and Brainard all wrote individual poems for the book, and collaborated on many others, no authors were listed for individual poems.

The poet Frank O'Hara called Berrigan's most significant publication, The Sonnets, "a fact of modern poetry." A telling reflection on the era that produced it, The Sonnets beautifully weaves together traditional elements of the Shakespearean sonnet form with the disjunctive structure and cadence of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land and Berrigan's own literary innovations and personal experiences.

Berrigan died on July 4, 1983 at the age of 49. The cause of death was cirrhosis of the liver brought on by hepatitis.

Reviews

[juch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haha so fun

[M.W.P.M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Train Ride is written "for Joe" (artist Joe Brainard). Reading Train Ride, I can't help feeling that it should have stayed between Berrigan and Brainard. The long poem reads like a series of inside jokes. In fact, one section of Train Ride is a tongue-in-cheek criticism of their mutual friends...

Now what shall we talk
 about?
 We could
 bitch all our mutual
 friends!!
 Good idea,
 as we pull into
 Providence,
 R.I.

 OUR FRIENDS
Ron: the tight-ass
Dick: the insignificant
Pat: the dowdy old lady
Anne: the superficial
 sentimentalist
Bill: the spoiled snoot
Kenward: the Elephant with
 the soul of a Butterfly &
 the temper of a Scorpion.
George: the bad painter
Michael: the Self Important
 Fuss-budget
The grotesque John Ashbery of
 the bad character
The silly boring Kenneth Koch
[...]

If the reader takes any interest in the poet's criticism, it is likely because his circle of friends includes many known poets. What redeems this particular section, and other sections of Train Ride, is Berrigan's sense of humour. The criticisms end: "Now you do some" followed by rows of blank lines to be filled in by the reader (or to be filled in by Joe).

The same is true of the section in which Berrigan ponders the queerness of the word queer (incorporating a similar technique)...

 "I'm a queer."
Ha-ha!
 *
 How about
 "I'm a straight."
 Unbelievable!
 *
"I'm an American."
 O.K.
 *
"I'm a Christian."
 Yes, I suppose
 you must be.
 *
"I'm a Poet."
 That must be an
 interesting job.
 *
"I'm a pill-addict."
 Are you?
 *
"I'm a grown-up, now."
 Ha-ha.
 *
"I'm a father."
 That's good.
 *
"I'm a long-haired Weirdo."
 You seem perfectly normal
 to me.
 *
 "I'm a great guy."
 Well, you are in a manner
 of speaking.
 *
"I'm a fucking monster!"
 *
"I'm part elephant, part Tiger, part
 Nag, Part bore."
 You might say that.
 *
"I'm an ordinary person."
 Yes, you are.
 *
 "I'm a passenger."
 That's absolutely true.

Now, tell me about You?
 (this space for you
 to do so)

Berrigan's sense of humour, however, is not enough to redeem Train Ride. The long poem is rambling and without direction (not in a good way). I'm particularly irked about the first few pages, which Berrigan dedicates to sex (not in a good way)...

A long naked pair of legs,
 about 17 yrs old
 stare at me
 across the linoleum
 aisle

 I'm a mild Sex Fiend!

 But you can't fuck
 here

 & what could you say
to smooth 17 year old
 faces?
 NOTHING!!
 So, they lose out.

 What can you say 
 at all?

 NOTHING

However, it's easy to keep
 talking
 if
it's what you do. . . .

[...]

Some people one should only
 fuck once.
 *
Others ones should not fuck
 at all unless there is an
 affair
 *
Then there are those one should
not fuck, under almost any 
circumstances (tho lapses are
forgiveable)
 *
Let me see: I've fucked in
 Rhode Island
 Maine
 Vermont
 New York
 Florida
 Texas
 Oklahoma
 New Mexico
 Colorado
 California
 Michigan
 Iowa
 Pennsylvania
 Kansas
 Connecticut
[...]

[Griffin Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

What can I say? the small anecdote of Lorenzo Thomas talking shit on Ted's handwriting was worth the price of the ticket.

[G · Rating 5 out of 5]

you are my hidden resources!

[Jeffrey Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

the ultimate ride

[Zack]

it's a quick read...it's fun to read berrigan rambling about fucking and handwriting and economics...