Posted by Cam W. on July 22, 2001, at 11:13:02
In reply to Re: favorite poets? » paula, posted by kid_A on July 20, 2001, at 15:02:57
Kid - Dude, I knew there was something I liked about you. Beat poetry is great. Ginsberg's "Kaddish" is cool when you realize he is dealing with his own mortality through his mother's death, while high on morphine (I believe). Much of beat poetry was written in altered states, but, because of this, I think that some of it reaches a little deeper into the primitive parts of our brains; adding another piece to the puzzle we call life.
BTW - I am sure that you have read Kerouac' "On the Road", but have you read "Off the Road" by Carolyn Cassady (Neil's long suffering wife). Like Rock Scully's scathing tome "Living with the Dead", "Off the Road" tears off the glamour and mystique of the original Beats and shows the all too real inbetween times.
I believe that you would have to special order "Off the Road". I know my wife ordered it from the publisher for my birthday a few years back and it cost her a small fortune (relatively).
One of Ginsberg's shorter poems that I have always liked is "To Lindsay". To me, it deals with those flashes of the past one gets when doing something by rote (eg. driving to work or on a highway).
To Lindsay
Vachel, the stars are out
dusk has fallen on the Colorado road
a car crawls slowly across the plain
in the dim light the radio blares its jazz
the heartbroken salesman lights another cigarette
In another city 27 years ago
I see your shadow on the wall
you're sitting in your suspenders on the bed
the shadow hand lifts up a Lysol bottle to your head
your shade falls over the floorAllen Ginsberg - 1958
Of course, this must be read with Ginsberg's excitely-infectious delivery, for full effect.
Thanks Kid - Cam
poster:Cam W.
thread:7677
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20010717/msgs/7753.html