Anne Waldman on Allen Ginsberg’s Howl
It was a cri de coeur, an alarm, a vision. Its structure matched its energy, which seemed the voices of many, not one. It was a rhizomic collage, just like life, a pastiche of the…
Search Results for: Ginsberg
The Essential Allen Ginsberg: Cafe Ventana Reading Group
“It occurs to me that I am America” –Allen Ginsberg, America Beat poet, antiwar activist, gay liberationist, free speech devotee, “First Thought, Best Thought” advocate, and cheerful Buddhist, Allen Ginsberg has been a major influence on U.S. counterculture…
Found in a Summary of Allen Ginsberg’s Selected Letters
Saturday Sunny 21 February 2009 Dear Katie Murphy Would you take a ride with me On 55-South You pick exit We’ll find diner or truck stop We’ll take out notebooks Write in silence Then eat…
Written on the Back Side of Ginsberg’s “Why I Meditate”
for Bella Levenshteyn There are 10,000 reasons to meditate (at least) There are 10,000 beings to save (for starters) There are 10,000 demented states of consciousness to purify (carpe diem) There are 10,000 dreams to…
Note to a Friend on the Back of Allen Ginsberg’s Poem, Death and Fame
This poem is pure Allen, Lovable and vain Allen to the end You gotta love him– Evidently, lots of men did Rereading this poem Lights my fire “He taught me how to meditate, now I’m…
Allen Ginsberg: What’s More Important than Hope
Via email I received an essay by Bay Area activist and founder of Middle East Children’s Alliance, Barbara Lubin. In her conclusion on her 20+years of activism on Israel/Palestine, she writes the following… And what…
More Recent Reading
Dear L., Here is a list of some books I’ve read in the past few years. Given my pretty rigid leftist mindset, Simone Weil’s maxim was often on my mind in reading the following……
Today’s One-Liner (#72)
Walking on water wasn’t built in a day. –Jack Kerouac, quoted in Bill Morgan, I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg
Writing Bliss Class: Fall 2024-Winter 2025
Recently my friend Lindsay Wolff inquired if I was doing a writing class this fall. Giving it some thought, I decided to offer the following just because I thought it could be (1) a fun …
Second Thoughts on Kerouac
But, disconcertingly, Kerouac was as likable in the flesh as he was repellent in print. In contrast to the seething Ginsberg, who went at me with everything he had, Kerouac (in spite of being the…