Howl and Other Poems

on a reread, my favs were “Howl”, “A Supermarket in California”, “America”, “Song” and “Wild Orphan”. I'm not the biggest fan of a few of the poems, but overall it's such an amazing collection.

If there is any book that would be banned, this is it. Although very graphic (in the extremely creative beat poetic form), this compilation of poetry is very interesting to read. Allen Ginsberg, a homosexual poet wrote Howl and Other Poems as an way to bring out his thoughts and express many issues that was very important to him. Written in between 1955-1956, this automatic controversial book was sent to trial for obscenity and other charges. Some of my favorite poems in this book include America & A Supermarket in California which references famed 19th century poet Walt Whitman (another great homosexual poet). This book is only about 55 pages. It may seem short, but going through the first poem “Howl” was hard enough to understand, so I read it about two times before I could catch on. Poetry can be complex at times, and the message lies in between the lines.

Howl is real. But the writing doesn't carry me away. I can say the same for some of his other poems. Despite there being parallels between Ginsberg and Kerouac, this is only seemingly so, for Ginsberg's feels premeditated, with an elementary rhythm that is a ways away from jazz writing. The way he creates a vision for us, of a scene, with the choice of words and the order of the words, feel born from a template.

I am only saying that about his writing style. Like I said, Howl is real, and so were the other poems in this collection. The paths his thoughts take, his honest yearnings and madness come from nobody but him and you will know this.