Sure. I like Howl. It still gave me a charge the last time I read it,
which is a while now. On The Road was an early read as I practiced my
stance as a rebel...but in all honesty I can truly say that neither
Ginsberg or Kerouac inhabit my poetry except, possibly, in a lefthand
small-whisper way. I wonder who can claim o'wise?
Burroughs - of whom I dislike the hipster tag he carries - has been a
light for me in the past. I have tried to follow his poetic
experiments. I almost forgot the qualification there - as tempting as
it may have been at the time, I have not played William Tell with my
ex-wife, neither have I consumed vast quantities of narcotics.
Wouldn't have minded his money - at least computers were good for
something.
Ginsberg and his record with Trungpa - it gives you pause for thought.
The squabble over the record, it's not the poetry for sure.
I think it's an effect of my situation local to Cambridge which makes
me cite O'Hara. Poets of the New York School, particularly O'Hara and
Ashbery, get referenced a plenty round these here parts. Reading "All
Poets Welcome" makes the divisions seem artificial to some extent.
Of Ginsberg and Ashbery reading, I Iiked Ashbery better even though
the mythology (personal and otherwise) lay with the beats and
ginsberg. Maybe it's the mythology that's the problem.
Roger
On 4/24/06, Stephen Vincent <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I was just concerned about what seemed an arbitrary sense of dismissal - the
> term 'beat' is so abstract and serves few. The critical history still very
> much unfolding - so much was exploding through the roof postwar up to 1962
> or so. It is easy to short circuit the diversity (Bishop and Lowell do not
> fit into that diversity - however). Like imagining a conversation between
> Larkin and Bunting (or Tom Raworth, for that matter).
>
> Oh well, I stop here. I don't want to get into simplifications, either.
>
> Stephen V
> http://stephenvincent.net/blog/
>
>
>
>
> > I'm wary of making judgments on such a huge beast as American poetry,
> > you asked: O'Hara seems to me to have the critical wind currently.
> >
> > FWIW, I prefer Rexroth - I bought a copy of him when I was 18 and it
> > seems he burned into me at such an early age - Whalen seems
> > interesting to me as well. McClure. Sometiems, though, I have no idea
> > of whom I read, have read, their labels,,,,shrugs doesnt understand
> > lenelabklels. my favourite us poets weldon kees and whitman and bishop
> > and lowell.
> >
> > Roger
> >
> > On 4/23/06, Stephen Vincent <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >>> See most other beat poets
> >>> and writers, few of whom still have a critical reputation worth
> >>> speaking of, most of whom are historical relics already.
> >>
> >> Who are you referencing here, Roger? I wd be curious to know.
> >>
> >> Stephen V
> >>
> >
> >
> > --
> > http://www.badstep.net/
> > http://www.cb1poetry.org.uk/
>
--
http://www.badstep.net/
http://www.cb1poetry.org.uk/
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