3 Pages

3 Pages

By Ted Berrigan 1934–1983 Ted Berrigan

For Jack Collom

10 Things I do Every Day

                              play poker
                              drink beer
                              smoke pot
                              jack off
                   curse

BY THE WATERS OF MANHATTAN

                               flower

      positive & negative

go home

          read   lunch   poems

               hunker down

    changes

                  Life goes by
                                        quite merrily
                                                               blue
                        NO HELP WANTED
                                 
                                 Hunting For The Whale

                   “and if the weather plays me fair
                               I’m happy every day.”

                     The white that dries clear
                     the heart attack
                     the congressional medal of honor
                     A house in the country

                     NOT ENOUGH

Ted Berrigan, "3 Pages" from The Collected Poems of Ted Berrigan. Copyright ©  by Ted Berrigan.  Reprinted by permission of University of California Press.

Source: The Collected Poems of Ted Berrigan (University of California Press, 2005)

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Poet Ted Berrigan 1934–1983

SCHOOL / PERIOD New York School (2nd Generation)

Subjects Living, Activities, Jobs & Working, Social Commentaries, Cities & Urban Life

Poetic Terms Free Verse

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Biography

Ted Berrigan—Edmund Joseph Michael Berrigan Jr.—was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the oldest of three children of Margaret Dugan and Edmund Berrigan, the chief engineer at Ward's Baking Company. On both sides the family was Irish Catholic. Berrigan attended local schools and entered Providence College, a local Catholic school, but left after a year and enlisted in the army.

Berrigan was sent to Korea in 1954 but never saw . . .

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Poems by Ted Berrigan

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SUBJECT Living, Activities, Jobs & Working, Social Commentaries, Cities & Urban Life

SCHOOL / PERIOD New York School (2nd Generation)

Poetic Terms Free Verse

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Originally appeared in Poetry magazine.

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