#Beat Poets

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

How to Meditate -lights out- fall, hands a-clasped, into instantaneous ecstasy like a shot of heroin or morphine, the gland inside of my brain discharging the good glad fluid (Holy Fluid) as i hap-down and hold all my body parts down to a deadstop trance-Healing all my sicknesses-erasing all-not even the shred of a "I-hope-you" or a Loony Balloon left in it, but the mind blank, serene, thoughtless. When a thought comes a-springing from afar with its held- forth figure of image, you spoof it out, you spuff it off, you fake it, and it fades, and thought never comes-and with joy you realize for the first time "thinking's just like not thinking- So I don't have to think any more"

[Jack Kerouac]

[tyin-cherry-knots]

having a crush on a vaguely communist girl while writing a paper on the beat poets is so cute for me like let’s run away and have a Kerouac-esque road trip! Let’s be bums babe!

[wewerealwaysthere]

Ginsberg & Orlovsky were Beat Poets and long time partners (1954-1997; until Ginsberg's death)

[hairtusk]

Apartment At Twin Peaks, by Helen Adam (Scottish, 1909-1993)

[familiarquotation]

I open to any page then one more page and start reading from the top left and suddenly I'm in an entirely perfect world again

Jack Kerouac, Big Sur

[closetofcuriosities]

Vintage Janis Joplin Bootleg

[thingstol00kat]

Bernice Bing, queer Asian American artist who lived in San Francisco during the years of the Beat Poets. At the Asian Art Museum, May 2023

[javaveggiedude]

Beet Poet

[onenakedfarmer]

Daily Painting

Robert LaVigne NUDE WITH ONIONS (PETER ORLOVSKY) (1954)

[beatjackkerouac]

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[apptowonder]

“The jail, a huge hollow metal cube

Hanging from the moon by a silver chain.

Someday Johnny Appleseed is going to chop it down.”

-Bob Kaufman, “Jail Poems”

[a-gay-a-day]

Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg lived from 1926 to 1997. He was one of the best known beat poets of the era, and he is best know for the poem Howl. (I have one of the earliest printed copies of Howl and one day I’ll donate it to an archive.)

A number of his poems talk about communism, drugs, heterosexual and homosexual sex, and anti-militarization. They can be read on poetryfoundation, and I highly recommend taking the time to go through some of them. After the publishing of Howl, he was tried for obscenity, since sodomy was still a crime in every state. 

Ginsberg was forced to leave Cuba after complaining about the treatment of homosexuals in Havana university. He was also forced out of Czechoslovakia for his outspokenness. Ginsberg grew up Jewish, and later converted to Buddhism. He was a Marxist, and his mother was a communist. There are many more things to learn about Allen Ginsberg, and I would recommend checking out his Wikipedia article for a general overview of his life, as it is fascinating. I will be posting about specific poems later on. 

[tyin-cherry-knots]

boy oh boy am i fascinated by the beat generation

[scribblesandsnaps]

A prompt to send us towards or even over the Precipice at Desperate Poets this fine morning. swallowing the light from that still visible exploded star fashioned me a cavern bigger than i could ever occupy condemning me to wander in search of the great mystery a lifetime of leaping into lostness to find the unfindable each leaf of that subterranean tome was turned in blind awe birthing…

[shelterinplace]

[familiarquotation]

it's time for me to quietly watch the world and even enjoy it

Jack Kerouac, Big Sur