Best Ginsberg Poems
Every time I read Pessoa I think
I'm better than he is
Salutations to Fernando Pessoa-Alan Ginsberg
Me, the monocled one, with my foppish belted waistcoat,
I'm not unworthy of you, Walt,
I'm not unworthy of you, my saluting you proves it . . .
Salute to Walt Whitman- Fernando Pessoa
Here from a place in my heart, I salute you,
Female as I am, and unknown,
Should I be praising Emily, Plath or Achmatova?
But you started it Pessoa! with your Alvaro comparing himself
to Whitman, not content to admit to a greatness of your own
and now I find dear Mr. Ginsberg confessing to his greatness in
epic manner, name dropping from Socrates to Michelangelo
admitting faults in the same breath-tracking his enlightenment
and if it was written tongue in cheek, I missed it.
How I admire the great poets that wade into the mainstream
appearing where the greatest wrongs appear, risking even
death for their beliefs, celebrated by those who embrace their
point of view, but what of the unknown poets in the world;
so many whose work is equally astounding, yet unexposed.
Musings on every subject known to man, set down in metaphor
and rhyme makes me wonder what brings immortal recognition
Is it from making a devoted study or from mixing in the right circles?
The hallowed halls of academia or is it some -one's tiny jounal
of handwritten poems waiting for discovery, the enlightenment
of the next century?
Poets, don't often, answer to their fame - writing what's inside of them
for those to come.
Thursday, 06 September, 2001
I wrote this poem one morning (Thursday, 06 September, 2001)after I had read a poem by Alan Ginsberg in the 1995 edition of The Best American Poetry.
I had never seen the poem he referred to "Salute to Whitman"by Fernando Pessoa
and today when I found it on the web Friday, March 01, 2002, I was suprised to see how similar our opening lines were.
Here are current links to the poems mentioned
https://issuu.com/hbarbas/docs/1997_salutations_to_pessoa_ginsberg_h_barbas
https://modpo2015.wordpress.com/poems-of-note/fernando-pessoa-alvaro-de-campos-salute-to-walt-whitman/
Categories:
ginsberg, appreciation, poetry, tribute, word
Form:
Free verse
Cautious adjudication, the gravitas of soft-spoken word.
Your legendary legacy, illustrious and exalted.
Advocate for gender justice, legal insights not always heard.
Yet, your jurisprudence was seldom persuasively faulted.
Few men invite state regulation of their sex organs.
Yet, many insist the state can control a woman’s body.
You, the bulwark against unconstitutional legal actions,
against state laws of men, pious and haughty.
Now you have departed, and we gaze upon the cavity.
Now we dread what might be used to fill the void.
The precedents of your life, our guidance against depravity.
Your advocacy for equality must be our natural law employed.
Categories:
ginsberg, abortion, america, eulogy, farewell,
Form:
Elegy
ON THE DEATH OF GINSBERG
Rain-damp street outside my window voices
punctuate early morning street dogs
bark car engines cough start
someone’s day
lie in half-light thinking of you Allen Ginsberg
what demons drove you Naomi there driving you to work in her madness
your madness walking Manhattan climbing San Franciscan hills bearded prophet with your schoolgirl crushes on skinny genius song-poet
boy disciples hear your teaching head in the vale of your breast
sing to guru heart beats
fearless harmonium playing
your song-chant hurting without tears over
boy love-spurning
walking death in your ears
holding hands with Mr Death always
speaking words in your ear
Mr Death your final lover faithful polygamous lover
Forever everyone’s lover
And this morning I see you in Linthorpe
damp street prelude of daily madness not your crazy wisdom
the madness of not seeing your crazy rant
my ramblings these ramblings my heart madness approaching
break break break break break into
a million pieces
prophet man bearded raging at people deaf in Linthorpe
blind in Linthorpe not hearing you
not ever seeing you there in their midst
Its grey its damp outside my window
smell of last night’s loving lingers she
my crazy lover you’d love her crazy wisdom
even if your ***** head makes think you don’t think
she’s there
Read again your poems
again hear your disembodied
voice give hope in life in dying
teaching always
speaking in death life raging
forever
Categories:
ginsberg, death of a friend,
Form:
Free verse
Paris is burning, hypnotized, majestic spire plummets to earth.
Categories:
ginsberg, french, history, paris, religion,
Form:
Free verse
withpen in hand awake, apparations of immortality
consumed inward. This straight heart's delight
yelling Tiny Nicaragua's a big threat
to undernourished Mexico.
By common sense , common law , common tenderness
& common tranquility I want to know what
happens after I rot.
shooting Gasoline electric speed ; empty soul'd
exploding at viaducts heavy bound and
manacled upon the City's Heart.
... Was that a shot ! backfire
or cherrybomb? jiggling yr knees there blankeyed
in the rain.
While each flower Buddha eye repeats this story
with teenage boys , The Red Police and grunts &
screams & shouts ...
... eyes , tongue and heart ...
theres' just too much to see ; world-wide
and full of money. Count yourself Greatness
in their pointy empire accumalating on the margin
with broken plumes of sensation. As
I lie
here naked in the dark , dreaming....
Categories:
ginsberg, art, devotion, faith, imagination,
Form:
Free verse
KEROUAC THE WORD SPEAKS JAZZ/Tony Adamo
Spoken Word All in Caps for Better Reading While in Recording Studio/10/14/23
THE JAZZ COOL AND BEBOP MUSICIANS MADE MUSIC THEIR OWN/
THE BEAT GENERATION WAS A NONCONFORMIST CULTURE MOVEMENT OF THE 1950’S/
WRITERS, POETS SUCH AS JACK KEROUAC, NEAL CASSADY, ALLEN GINSBERG, DIANE DE PARMA, WILLIAM S. BURROUGH, AND PHILIP LAMANTIA, AND A WHOLE BEAT GENERATION OF AUTHORS WHO TOLD YOU LIKE IT IS/
INNOVATIONS IN THE COOL OF WORD SPEAK POETRY/ THE BEATS WERE A LITERARY SUBCULTURE THAT WAS DEEPLY ROOTED IN THE TOTAL REJECTION OF STANDARD NARRATIVE VALUES/
MAN, HARD LIQUOR, DRUGS, AND MAD SEX FUELED THE BACKBONE OF THE BEATS ALONG WITH THE HARMONIC SYSTEM OF BEPOP IMPROVISATIONS INFUSED INTO THEIR WORLD OF THE NEW POETRY SPOKEN WORD/
THE BEAT GENERATION’S MOVERS AND THINKERS HIPED THE WORLD TO A NEW WAY OF KNOWLEDGE WITH FLOWING THOUGHTS AND IDEAS ABOUT PERSONAL FREEDOM WITHOUT GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION/
SO, DIG, LIKE THE BEBOPPERS STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE BANDSTAND, IN PARTICULAR, CHARLIE BIRD PARKER IMPROVISED HORN SOLOS/
SO WAS IT FOR THE BEATS' FAST AND SLOW MUSIC TEMPOS IN THEIR WORD DELIVERY/
TAKING MELODY BEBOP MUSIC LINES, IMPROVISATION ON WORDS, AND INCORPORATING THE SOUNDS INTO THE BEAT THINKING AND WRITINGS/
MAN, THESE JAZZ POETS WERE DEEPLY ROOTED IN THE ARRANGEMENT OF JAZZ WORD SPEAK, BEBOP JUMPING FREESTYLE IN WORD WRITING TO PAGE AND BEYOND/
NOT ALL BEATS WERE JAZZHEADS/ BUT JAZZ MUSIC IN THE 1950s GAVE VOICE TO A LOT OF THE BEATS' POETRY AND WRITINGS/ LIKE DIG KEROUAC ON THE STEVE ALLEN TV SHOW TO SEE AND HEAR WHAT I MEAN/
LIKE IT IS BABY, LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI, KEROUAC, AND GINSBERG, WERE KICKIN THEIR WORD SPEAK WRITINGS WITH A BEBOP INFLUENCE AND A MARIJUANA, HIGH BALL HIGH/
THE BEAT GENERATION FREED THEMSELVES IN THEIR WRITINGS AND LIVES FROM THE SHACKLES OF WESTERN THINKING IN SEEKING NEW WAYS TO EXPRESS THEIR TIMES ABOUT LOVE, LIFE, DEATH AND POETRY.
Categories:
ginsberg, spoken word,
Form:
Spoken Word
Ginsberg Writes the F- WORD
FALLEN GINSBERG COINS “” INTO POETRY,
Our college creative-writing professor
Announced in 1972, to our class of hippie poets,
Like me, who didn’t quite see
The big deal, because we were establishing
That outrage into every sentence of all
Conversations spoken across the world;
That (I hadn’t even known) it was banned from
Our house, until one night in high school
When father shouted it and mother screamed
Upon hearing that word of emphasis, which had so
Become a habit in anger, chosen for impact. A word
Endorsed by “The Generation of Love.” No kidding?
Am I saying it hadn’t been used in poetry before? Not even by Dante, at the gates of hell
Facing Cerberus in torrents of rain?
Or, could the eloquent Pindar have written:
“The fierce and biting tooth of slanderous
Words from old have I seen.
Sharp- tongued Archilochus in
want plus struggling,
Grown ing fat on the harsh words of hate...”
Surely, an accentuating adjective that
He might have used...Cannot the passion
Of the lyric expand vocabulary
In usage to top bored, habitual speech?
Critics were thrilled by the controversy of Ginsberg,
As it gave poetry a pass into the topical.
But we young poets were seated in delay, left
Wondering again and again not about words,
But about the values and missions
Of just what was going to be coming within
The realm of a new world
That seemed was at our feet.
...Though now we ask, Oh, ! What happened?
**********. **********. **********
(C) Sally Young Eslinger 9/15/20
Categories:
ginsberg, future, history, poetry, political,
Form:
Free verse
Allen Ginsberg
Where have you gone?
We need you in this world right now
We are frightened and alone
You were a shining light through the darkness
Through the '50's you held strong
Even though society said
Everything about you was wrong
You were a beacon of freedom
Let your words always ring true
You will always be a hero of mine
May God always shine his light on you
Categories:
ginsberg, death, loss, nostalgia, people,
Form:
mission accomplished, bounded in truth,Ruth that is. dedicated to the rights of women matriculating the interpretation of man's law to remind man..you already wrote me in! with her impeccable, eloquent demeanor, she was once asked..well can you rap like biggie smalls? she replied, that's not my gift.all the women of the world are in agreement when it comes to truth, i pick Ruth, what ah lady, ah men, ah women.
Categories:
ginsberg, analogy, angel,
Form:
Free verse
Beat poet Allen Ginsberg
versifier to both seen&heard
The embodiment of all things anarchic
a performance art so hypnotic
Categories:
ginsberg, people,
Form:
Clerihew
The fantastic
writings
of Allan
remain
but he is gone
do you remember
seeing him?
He traveled the
world in search
of the perfect
poem
The waters of the East River
still flow
and the old
Gotham city
still stands
tall
Do you think you would like to
join in on the
parade of poets?
Well pick up
a pen
and let your
thoughts appear
on the page
We're waiting to hear from you!
Categories:
ginsberg, art
Form:
Free verse