Tag Archives: Allen Ginsberg

Paradox and Buffoonery

Posted on May 16, 2023 by Lee

“You gotta fight for peace.” And some in the audience must have agreed. If bad people will do bad things you’ve got to do something to stop them. But others just saw the paradox and laughed. One of those who … Continue reading →

Posted in Beat Generation, books, Literature | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Art and Life: Notes on some Conversations with Allen Ginsberg

Posted on March 31, 2022 by Lee

It begins with the personal. “Life is full of strange experiences,” he says. Allen Ginsberg finds the extraordinary in the everyday. “Each one has his inner nature that he has to satisfy,” says Louis Ginsberg, attempting to account for the … Continue reading →

Posted in Beat Generation, books, Literature | Tagged | Leave a comment

William Burroughs and Facts

Posted on May 18, 2018 by Lee

William Burroughs tells Allen Ginsberg: “I am about to annunciate a philosophy called ‘factualism.’ All arguments, all nonsensical considerations as to what people ‘should do,’ are irrelevant. Ultimately there is only facts on all levels, and the more one argues, … Continue reading →

Posted in Beat Generation, books, Literature | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

From the Reading Diary: Kenneth Patchen’s Selected Poems

Posted on February 12, 2018 by Lee

Kenneth Patchen is interested in, among other things, the way the branches move on the trees to create visions and to scratch the surface of the stars in the night sky. He’s also interested in the cruelty that men – … Continue reading →

Posted in books, Literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A Walk in the Sun

Posted on October 2, 2017 by Lee

Summer heat wrinkles the air and dries the brain. I move slowly, under pressure, as if pondering a great thought. All I’m trying to do is remember why I got out of bed this morning. The sun’s warmth swallowing me … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Beat Attitude

Posted on November 23, 2016 by Lee

In Go, John Clellon Holmes sketches some of the leading figures of the Beat Generation. We get a picture of their different attitudes, in every sense of the word: the way they talk, the way they carry themselves, the way … Continue reading →

Posted in Beat Generation | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Notes on Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”

Posted on October 20, 2016 by Lee

Allen Ginsberg gives us picture after picture of the lost minds, “the best minds of my generation”, images of entire lives lived and lived out and used up, flashes of light and life like the images in Whitman, who also … Continue reading →

Posted in Literature | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Sunflowers in the Sunset

Posted on June 21, 2016 by Lee

“We’re not our skin of grime, we’re not dread bleak dusty imageless locomotives, we’re golden sunflowers inside, blessed by our own seed & hairy naked accomplishment-bodies growing into mad black formal sunflowers in the sunset, spied on by our own … Continue reading →

Posted in Literature | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Notes on “Who Be Kind To” by Allen Ginsberg

Posted on October 15, 2015 by Lee

“Who Be Kind To” by Allen Ginsberg: a meditation on the importance of kindness, and what it means to be kind. Kindness is important because every individual is “one and perishable”. Vulnerable. To recognise yourself as one and perishable is … Continue reading →

Posted in Literature | Tagged , | Leave a comment