READ POEM HERE
Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) is cherished as the pivotal figure between the 50s Beat Generation and the counter-cultural revolution of the 1960s. He was born in Newark, New Jersey the son of a high school teacher and poet, Louis Ginsberg, and Naomi Levy Ginsberg. His early experience included dissent: his mother was a member of the Communist Party and sometimes took her sons along to the local meetings. Her periods of mental illness disturbed Ginsberg greatly, resurfacing in his great elegy to her, ‘Kaddish’ named after the Jewish prayer of mourning. Ginsberg studied at Columbia University where he made crucial friendships with writers such as Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs. Ginsberg’s first book of poems, the extraordinary Howl and other poems was published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s City Lights press in 1955 and was subject to a famous obscenity trial due to its frank treatment of his homosexuality and explicit content.
June 18, 2008 at 1:04 pm |
I was only reading this poem last week……..LOVE it.
June 18, 2008 at 4:38 pm |
that piece is brilliant… i love it for the stream of thought feel.. it rushed it slows,, but no matter the tempo… it flows… and fills me with wonderment in the opportunities we have every day to leave this world,, and just be….
June 18, 2008 at 10:47 pm |
He tends to get wordy, but I liked this one
June 18, 2008 at 10:47 pm |
Thanks paisley–glad you liked it
June 19, 2008 at 5:00 pm |
Excellent post. One of my favorite Ginsberg poems.
June 19, 2008 at 8:40 pm |
glad you liked it Julie