“Poetry is not an expression of the party line.
It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does.”
~Allen Ginsberg
Today would’ve been Allen Ginsberg’s 86th birthday. In celebration, here are a couple of links:::
Howl (the film starring James Franco); clip of the section on how to write poetry
Allen Ginsberg reading part 1 of Howl
The flowering dogwood at St. Mark’s is blooming for Ginsberg’s birthday
“when did you forget you were a flower?” ~ Sunflower Sutra (one of my favorite poems — It’s beautiful. It’s true. It makes me tear up.)
Ginsberg’s Karma (documentary on Ginsberg’s time in India; produced by Ram Devineni and hosted by Bob Holman)
Vomit Express (Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan)
Howl on the list of banned books
Ginsberg’s hometown of Paterson, NJ