Allen Ginsberg at the Miami Bookfair International on November 7, 1985. Photo by MDCarchives via Wikipedia.
Today would’ve been Allen Ginsberg’s eighty-eighth birthday, and in honor of the Jersey-born poet’s powerful and beautiful work we asked people on the Burning Furiously Beautiful facebook page what their favorite Ginsberg poem was. I’ve loved hearing the results! So far we’ve heard:
- America
- The Blue Angel
- Father Death Blues (Don’t Grow Old)
- Howl
- Kaddish
- Sunflower Sutra
- A Supermarket in California
My favorite is “Sunflower Sutra,” in which Ginsberg writes about Kerouac and him sitting under the shadow of a train as the sun set and spying a dried up sunflower amdist the machinery. The line “when did you forget you were a / flower?” slays me every time.
What’s your favorite poem by Allen Ginsberg? Leave it in the comments below or on the Burning Furiously Beautiful facebook page.
Want to read more about Ginsberg on his birthday?
- Allen Ginsberg’s William Blake Vision
- A Ginsberg Love Fest at First Blues
- How Antonin Artaud Came to Influence the Beats (hint: Ginsberg)
- Kill Your Darlings trailer (Daniel Radcliffe plays Ginsberg)
- Poets as Visual Artists (did you know Ginsberg was a photographer?)
- My On the Road review (Tom Sturridge played Carlo Marx, the Allen Ginsberg character)
- Larry Closs’ Beatitude features two poems by Ginsberg that had never been published before
- James Franco discusses Allen Ginsberg, whom he played in the film Howl
- The Allen Ginsberg Project is the place to go for Ginsberg fans
And if you’ve ever been curious about how Allen Ginsberg met Jack Kerouac in the first place, you can read all about the early origins of the key people who came to represent the Beat Generation but who are all really so much more than that in Burning Furiously Beautiful.
Stephanie Nikolopoulos 
My favorite would have to be “Howl”. I would also like to add a memory of Allen Ginsberg. He had a booksigning at a downtown Chicago bookstore and I took my copy the City Lights edition of “Howl” he was kind enough to sign it, and I told him I was a writer and he asked about that and offered a bit of advice, he was nice and cool. Some times it’s cool to meet your idols.
Thanks for sharing your memory! I love hearing stories like this!!