yesterday marked the 50 year anniversary of the unveiling of Allen Ginsberg's seminal poem (which lucidly and viscereally described a generation) Howl. On October 7, 1955, Ginsberg read his poem to an audience in San Francisco. Howl (and that reading in specific) is given credit for kicking off the Beat movement in modern poetry.
anyway, Howl is still an amazing piece, meant to be heard, not read. i have a recording of Ginsberg reading this poem, and it is simply awesome (in all meaning of the word). i am not a Ginsberg nut, and frankly feel most of his poetry is overrated, but Howl remains one of the greatest poems ever written. and, anybody who can do that deserves to go down in history, and will earn my undying respect. Howl might have been a fluke for Ginsberg (depending upon your feelings of Ginsberg), but what a fluke it was.
read up on Ginsberg and his fight against censorship during the mid-50's McCarthyism. then, read the poem and revel in Ginsberg's images. enjoy the metrical timing and spacing. and celebrate a piece of poetic (and American) history.
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3 comments:
casey & chris-
How really is amazing. the rest of Ginsberg (as we've all said) is hit or miss (and mostly miss, at that). but, like i said in the original post, being able to write the timeless Howl is good enough to earn my respect. this is what all of us aspire to, isn't it? to write the next great world killer!
and thanks for the heads up about the Rage song, chris. i like Rage and will check that song out. their first album is still one of my all-time favorite albums.
exactly...turn that shit up load and just vibrate with angst. some good shit.
i just read my comment. how the hell can someone turn something up "load"? obviously, i meant "loud".
watch out, folks. there's a moron over here. and his name is j.b
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