Boldt Words & Images: Gate of Ivory Gate of Horn (a poem revised)

(“Glad I was Chicago born”)

By Bob Boldt

It’s 1954 Dearborn and State. Gate of Horn Saturday night. My best

friend Tom Clemens to my right, and to the left of me, standing at the

bar, Roger McGuinn. I have no idea who he is, just another pair of

ears listening...That old Bilbao moon, I won’t forget it soon
“That old Bilbao moon, just like a big balloon,
That old Bilbao moon would rise above the dune.
While Tony’s Beach Saloon rocked with an old-time tune,
We’d sing a song the whole night long, and I can still recall
Those were the greatest (those were the greatest)
Those were the greatest (those were the greatest)
Those were the greatest nights of them all.” Eyes on Will Holt’s
pin-lit spot-lit face. Kurt Weill’s music. Most only know of The Gate
as an interesting sidebar to Inside Llewyn Davis. I remember
tables, cigarette smoke pierced by aforementioned pin-spot. I didn’t
know you then even as little as I do now. At my revels you were in

grade school barely as naive as me. I was 16 when you were 12, growing

up through Kinsey and Kelsey, Giacometti and Ginsberg. Quaint and

lovely in retrospect, never having heard of Homer’s Gates of Horn and

Ivory. You sneaking out of the house to New York to hear Ginsberg
read, me catching Muddy at the Club DeLisa. Even in 68 we were
leaders. Now we are elders. Eyes on us, Ears listening to our song.
Raise volume of Lottie Lenya singing close of Moon of Alabama.

To be listened to read over music background.

Who would have thought that in my dotage, I would run smack dab into

so many remembered detailed images. More like dream images sometimes,

but no less real. I guess that’s like Homer’s detailing the two gates

through which dreams pass. Of course, when Albert Grossman came up

with “The Gate of Horn” he was implying just how authentic the music

within those walls promised to be.

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This video pretty well sums it up:


Lotte Lenya:


And never forget:

Copyright © 2019 by Bob Boldt

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