![\"Beat](\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/beat-hotel-plaque-enh-notated-560.jpg\")
<\/a>Plaque installed in 2009 at 9 rue G\u00eet-le-Coeur, Paris.<\/p><\/div>
<\/a>Olympia Press, 1959<\/font><\/p><\/div> Two Cities Editions, 1960<\/font><\/p><\/div><\/p>\n “Here are Sinclair’s ‘Last Words,’ written in Paris long before he would have been aware of any pressing need to devise a valedictory.”<\/em> — HEATHCOTE WILLIAMS<\/a>, from a tribute to Sinclair Beiles, in BONE HEBREW<\/a><\/em>, a collection of Beiles’s writings published in 2013, in a limited edition, by Cold Turkey Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n Let me utter my last words in a taxi cruising slowly I spoke to the curator of the Beat Generation show about Sinclair and complained to Jean-Jacques Lebel [who arranged the plaque] as well, but there is prejudice against him for being South African and also for his mental problems. I also complained to the Beat Hotel management!! It is infuriating. — LILIANE LIJN<\/a>, from an email message to Gerard Bellaart<\/p>\n Is it possible to be a poet without mental problems? … poor Paul Celan, poor George Trakl … I could plague you with a list that will undo your screen. Actually Lebel could easily amend the plaque situation at the Beat Hotel. — GERARD BELLAART<\/a>, from an email message to Straight Up<\/p>\n POSTSCRIPT CORRECTION:<\/p>\n Dear Jan,<\/p>\n Conscience dictates I offer another correction … It was not JJ Lebel who arranged the plaque. I allowed him and Barry Miles the honour of unveiling it on the day, but it was Your Reporter who wrote the text and worked with Madame Odillard at the Hotel to put it up. So I\u2019m afraid I was to blame for omitting Sinclair\u2019s name. All the more reason for me to set the record straight in the new MINUTES TO GO . . . Actually, I will be contacting the hotel about CUT-UPS@60<\/a> in 2020 so you never know we maybe could add a Postscript — OLIVER HARRIS<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Here are Sinclair’s ‘Last Words,’ written in Paris long before he would have been aware of any pressing need to devise a valedictory.” — HEATHCOTE WILLIAMS, from a tribute to Sinclair Beiles, in BONE HEBREW, a collection of Beiles’s writings published in 2013, in a limited edition, by Cold Turkey Press. Let me utter my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":30932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19,18,4,23,17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-30935","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-art","8":"category-literature","9":"category-main","10":"category-news","11":"category-political-culture","12":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/beat-hotel-plaque-enh-notated-560.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-82X","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30935"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30964,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30935\/revisions\/30964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
\nThrough the beautiful posies of neon signs.
\nLet someone else die in my room on a turned mattress
\nSo it doesn’t show stains. Let him savour the smell of it.
\nThe smell of old lemons and let his last moments
\nBe guillotined by badly played guitars in other rooms.
\nIn readiness I have a shirt with the black ring scrubbed off
\nThe collar, and a suit which was shiny before I sandpapered it.
\nAnd now I must find my last words:
\nOscar Wilde looked at the wallpaper
\nand said: “I knew I had to go first.” Goethe screamed, “Let there be light!”
\nChekov said, “How stupid is it for me to die.”
\nWhat can I say to the taxi driver which is memorable enough.
\nI cannot think.
\nI am too overcome by the outrages perpetrated against me.
\nPerhaps I should get the taxi driver to cruise even more slowly
\nSo I can pick up a whore and die in her room
\nWith a beautiful zizzard of neon flashing through the window.
\nLet her invent my last words with all her experience.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n