The passing of an older generation leaves nothing but regrets...

The Old Man and the Seine

Poem in honour of George Whitman who passed away within twenty-four hours after I called, in vain, to see him.
He was the legendary owner of the Shakespeare & Co. in Paris, having " inherited " the brand name from Sylvia Beach who published James Joyce's ULYSSES. The old rag-and-bone bookshop with its creaking stairways and centuries-old stench where expatriate writers and poets like Hemingway, Ferlinghetti, Tambimuttu or Ginsberg popped in for a snooze and a chat lasting weeks on end with ol' " King " George has been since his disappearance turned into a spit-and-polish big-business tourist attraction spot in Paris by his only-heir daughter, under the patronage of Coppolla's film-heir daughter. In the old days, you could " smell " your way to it as soon as you squeezed out of the Metro at " Zer0-Mile stations " in Paris. The place is in rue de Bucherie, meaning butcher's lane : probably just where the great French renegade poet Villon was thought to have " butchered " a monk and was never heard of again. All distances in kilometres are measured from this " Zer0-Mile " centre comprising the building complexes of Notre Dame Cathedral, the Préfecture : Police Head Quarters, and the Palais de Justice law courts on the north bank of the Seine. King George, himself, held audience berthed-up on a book-cramped bed - shared by a velvet black pedigree-d doggy - and which was larger than the room he occupied on the third floor. The only window was never ever opened, though, probably not to keep visitors hanging on in there longer than they could take a long breath. Don't tell anyone…shsh…shshs… the place was gutted by a fire which broke out in the first-editions room (containing some thousands : 5000 ??) on the first floor, over-looking the Notre Dame Cathedral. A young poet from England, Richard Hallward got the brilliant idea of organizing a non-stop 72-hour marathon poetry reading in Paris, London, Boston and New York which he co-ordinated from a public telephone booth, and a selection was published by David Applefield's Frank Books in 1991 with forewords by Eric Mottram and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, under the title : FIRE READINGS : A Collection of Contemporary Writing from the Shakespeare & Company Fire Benefit Readings.


The Old Man and the Seine


For the legendary George Whitman

(1912 - December 13, 2011)



King George peered out of the oval of the hollow mile

And caught the Hunchback ogling Gina Lollobrigida;

Victor Hugo sat engrossed in his séance at Guernsey Isle

Feigning he would hold back the Cervantes Armada;

So witty Ol' Walt sat on the lip of Notre Dame bridge

Scuffing overgrown grass with his heels in the Seine

But his beard got caught in Quijote's wordy porridge:

That's why they say he set up shop in Butcher's Lane.

The Master of Ol' Vic took exception to this affront

And shook his spear such that it stirred a tsunami

From the Thames down the Chunnel to the front

Of Tumbleweed Hotel's Shakespeare & Company.

Now you know why King George kept his window shut

All through the century keeping no eye even half shut.



(c) T. Wignesan - Paris. From the collection: Poems Omega Plus, 2005; rev. 2012.