Posted by kid_A on July 22, 2001, at 20:32:19
In reply to Re: favorite poets? » kid_A, posted by Cam W. on July 22, 2001, at 11:13:02
> 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).
I think it might have been methedrine, but I'm not sure my self... I know it was something... Its a great poem as well, I love poems like Kaddish, long and sprawling, where you can feel the catharsis taking place in the writer, how as they write, with each line they are excorsising their own ghosts...
Believe it or not I have not read much Kerouac, when I was younger I was affected by that dreadfull idea of -not- liking something because it was overtly popular... Kerouac being the most upfront beat reference I never let myself get into it, and surely missed out on some great writing... If I do pick up a book by him, it will probably be Dharma Bums, just to be different I guess... I never grow up...
'Off the Road' sounds very very interesting though, I'll have to look for it... I've been trying to find older Albums or writing of John Girorno (the sleeper in Andy Warhol's move 'Sleep', founder of Dial-A-Poem, Giorno Poetry System, friend to William S. Bouroughs, poet etc etc)... From his 70's period... very difficult... He's a bit graffic, a shocker, at times, sort of a verbal equivalent to someone like Robert Maplethorp... He is never really listed w/ the other beat writers but he was a contemporary to many of them...
I can only speak for myself, and what I have witnessed, but what is the connection between creativity depression and literature... Do we empathize? Do 'happy' people just not have the time for these things in their lives...? Is it better to be dumb and happy, or smart and sad... And are happy people really happy, or do they just think they are happy....
SALUTATIONO Generation of the thoroughly smug
and thoroughly uncomfortable,
I have seen fishermen picknicking in the sun,
I have seen them with untidy families,
I have seen their smiles full of teeth
and heard ungainly laughter.
And I am happier than you are,
And they were happier than I am;
And the fish swim in the lake
and do not even own clothing.-Ezra Pound
poster:kid_A
thread:7677
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20010717/msgs/7802.html