Beat Poets

by Carmela Ciuraru (Editor)

This rousing anthology features the work of more than twenty-five writers from the great twentieth-century countercultural literary movement. Writing with an audacious swagger and an iconoclastic zeal, and declaiming their verse with dramatic flourish in smoke-filled cafés, the Beats gave birth to a literature of previously unimaginable expressive range.

The defining work of Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac provides the foundation for this collection, which also features the improvisational verse of such Beat legends as Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gary Snyder, and Michael McClure and the work of such women writers as Diane DiPrima and Denise Levertov. LeRoi Jones’s plaintive “Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note” and Bob Kaufman’s stirring “Abomunist Manifesto” appear here alongside statements on poetics and the alternately incendiary and earnest correspondence of Beat Generation writers.

Visceral and powerful, infused with an unmediated spiritual and social awareness, this is a rich and varied tribute and, in the populist spirit of the Beats, a vital addition to the libraries of readers everywhere.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Fiction, Anthologies, American, The United States Of America, Book Club

256 pages, Hardcover

First published July 9, 2002

About the author

Carmela Ciuraru is the author of Nom de Plume: A (Secret) History of Pseudonyms, and her anthologies include First Loves: Poets Introduce the Essential Poems That Captivated and Inspired Them and Solitude Poems. She is a member of PEN American and the National Book Critics Circle, and she has been interviewed on The Today Show and by newspapers and radio stations internationally. She lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved these -- Corso better than remembered -- but some were not good at all. Ginsberg, the one great poet here, vastly superior to everyone, but wonderful in general to spend time with these voices, if not always the poems.

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review to follow.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Patchy but invigorating, living language, heartfelt and real.

[Zizeloni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not a poetry person and it took me forever to find a book I can read.
This book has poems from different beat poets.
Some were nice, some I was reading over and over without being able to pay attention...
But it matched perfectly with Just Kids, which I was reading at the same time.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good intro to the Beat Poets. My favorites were Allen Ginsberg and some of the women poets (Diane di Prima, Joanna McClure, etc.). They were Punk and Grunge before it came into being.

[Dani Cetrà · Rating 3 out of 5]

M'ha semblat que els del Ginsberg destaquen en un recull irregular de 27 poetes i poetesses Beat. De forma molt poc original, em quedo amb Howl, d'ell:

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,
[...]
with dreams, with drugs, with waking nightmares, alcohol and cock and endless balls,
[...]

[Jude Burrows · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘and now, each night i count the stars,
and each night i get the same number.
and when they will not come to be counted,
i count the holes they leave.’ - leroi jones

[Shay Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used to really love the Beats when I was in my teens and twenties, but now I find this stuff a little bit tiresome. I only really liked three of the poets featured: Corso, O'Hara and Welch. I understand that they were rebelling against structure, conformity, and the restrictive culture of the 50s, but a lot of this writing just seems like word salad to me now. Sure, it's "jazz." Whatever.

I also grew weary of the whoop and holler about drugs and booze in many of the poems. That's not liberation or revolution, that's just getting wasted. It's not a "statement", at least not in any meaningful way.

Some of the worst "poems" were by novelist Jack Kerouac. Just random squawks, faux "jazz", name-dropping and double talk.

I did find that the women poets in this collection were more cogent than most of the men.

Finally, I should say something about Ginsberg. I've always liked him, he was very definitely an early influence of mine, but reading it now, half of it seems like mere riffing. The other half still packs a wallop, though.

There are notes at the end, articles and excerpts by some of these figures, and several of them rail against form, poetic rules, and structure. I heartily agree to an extent, but only to an extent. It's one thing to tear off the straitjacket; it's another to not say what's worth saying because you're too busy posturing.

Not really recommended unless you're 19 years old.

[Dane Cobain · Rating 4 out of 5]

This little collection is a fun pocket-sized collection of different beat poetry, encompassing everyone from Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac to Lawrence Ferlenghetti. If anything, my only real criticism for it would be the fact that I’d already read a few of the poems elsewhere and so I skipped them to whizz through it a little quicker. I don’t need to re-read Allen Ginsberg’s America, for example, because I know the whole thing off by heart.

If you’re new to the work of the beat poets then this is a pretty good place to start. There’s a lot of good stuff in here, but the problem for me was that I’d already read a bunch of it. It was like putting an album on and hoping for some new music, only to discover that it’s just a greatest hits compilation. That doesn’t make it a bad thing, but it could be better.

Still, I think as an introduction to the world of beat poetry, which is arguably my favourite kind of poetry, this is a pretty good place to start. It’s also a nice little edition and so it’s one of those rare finds where the content and the presentation of it are both pretty good. You know what you’re getting going into it and while it might not quite blow your mind or exceed your expectations, it’ll certainly meet them. What else could you ask for?

[Αταλάντη Ευριπίδου · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must say, I never thought I would enjoy Beat poetry as much as I did. This is a great collection of poems, the editor did a fantastic job; every poem is a wound and a scream, raw and powerful. I generally lean more towards the Romantics, but the Beats managed to enchant me in a completely different way. And this is a great edition as well; the paper is of good quality, there are no editing mistakes and the presentation is simple but beautiful. All in all, an excellent read and a unique experience.

[Raquel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought a while about the stars. The book probably deserves 4* in that is a good compilation of poems; it is a lovely way to discover a generation, write down a few names to check out more of, and short enough that is enjoyable. 3* however is how I'd rate my enjoyment of the book. Some authors here are obviously brilliant, some poems I rolled my eyes at; and I am well aware some may say "you don't know about poetry" and that's... true, I don't know much about poetry and is not my preferred form of literature, but like me there'll be many. Ginsberg though, he was brilliant.

[plum sweater · Rating 5 out of 5]

maybe the only book i take with me everywhere.
dropped in a bag or stuffed in a pocket.
i can find every emotion in it.
i can look myself up, and there i am, on page.
not to mention;
the cover design is gorgeous.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been dipping in & out of this for months, purposefully not reading it all; it's a totally brilliant little book actually, & it's the poets you're less likely to have heard of that really make it, not the big names.

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beat poets are so up their own butts it makes me want to puke. But if you want a decent collection of different poets from that time period, this one is as good as any.

[Odeta Putkyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The world has a beautiful soul."

[pablo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lo mejor que puedo decir de la poesía beat es que se puede describir igual que al movimiento: errática, desordenada, genial, caótica, inspiradora. El resultado de escribir justo lo que se viene a la cabeza, sin detenerse, sin criticarse, es justo lo que uno esperaría, crudeza y genialidad, pero también mucho que sobra, ideas que sonaban bien en la cabeza pero una vez fuera de ella, ya no.
Le doy mucho mérito a la abstracción de la poesía, que de alguna forma es paralela a los movimientos de abstracción en el arte -y eventualmente también en la música-. Los beats fueron auténticos consigo mismos y eso hace su sombra cada vez más grande

[Ivan Skrtic · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic and thorough collection of poems from one of America’s greatest literary movements

[lil · Rating 4 out of 5]

just love them so much.

[will · Rating 4 out of 5]

forgot i finished this a while ago , i keep on my bedside table most of the time though still , tears by allen ginsberg . all of the ones in here of his . i like allen ginsberg

[reem · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know when you just know? I knew I would love this book, I was so sure I would want to keep it on the part of my shelves where I can always find it and pick it up constantly for the rest of my life. I never knew the beat generation was as wild and disseminated and it is when I walked into the bookstore and picked up 'On the Road' ten years ago. I was hooked on the mobile notion of freedom, I liked Jack's made-up words, his saintly thoughts, I had more in common with him than I had with any of my friends back then. Obviously my admiration for OTR went deeper: I wanted to know about his friends, his coffee and cigarettes and poetry and scandal and jazz and homosexuality and dreams and books and thoughtfulness, I wanted to know everything. And so this book brought it all back to me. I realized how achingly beautiful it all was again, I am deeper than I ever was before and I have these misogynistic men to thank for it.

[Kerfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction to the poetry of the Beats. Some poets and poems were familiar to me and some were new. I was glad to find Diane di Prima and Lenore Kandel; women are usually far in the background as creators in the Ginsberg-Felinghetti-Corso-Snyder-Orlovsy-Kerouac narrative of popular culture. I also didn't realize that many of these poets, like Denise Levertov and Frank O'Hara, were considered to be part of the Beat group.

After reading through the entire book once, I revisited my favorites. A solid collection.

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely anthology.
Four stars
simply for the fact I still have mixed feelings about the Beats and their surrounding hype.

[Archie Benjamin Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

a great selection of poetry from the beat generation, compiled in a beautiful compact, hardback book.

[Abe Spitalny · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave this two stars for the two poems I enjoyed in this book:

1. "Song" by Allen Ginsberg

The weight of the world
is love.
Under the burden
of solitude,
under the burden
of dissatisfaction
the weight,
the weight we carry
is love.
Who can deny?
In dreams
it touches
the body,
in thought
constructs
a miracle,
in imagination
anguishes
till born
in human--
looks out of the heart
burning with purity--
for the burden of life
is love,
but we carry the weight
wearily,
and so must rest
in the arms of love
at last,
must rest in the arms
of love.
No rest
without love,
no sleep
without dreams
of love--
be mad or chill
obsessed with angels
or machines,
the final wish
is love
--cannot be bitter,
cannot deny,
cannot withhold
if denied:
the weight is too heavy
--must give
for no return
as thought
is given
in solitude
in all the excellence
of its excess.
The warm bodies
shine together
in the darkness,
the hand moves
to the center
of the flesh,
the skin trembles
in happiness
and the soul comes
joyful to the eye--
yes, yes,
that's what
I wanted,
I always wanted,
I always wanted,
to return
to the body
where I was born.

2. "Enlightenment Poem" by Lenore Kandel

we have all been brothers, hermaphroditic as oysters
bestowing our pearls carelessly

no one yet had invented ownership
nor guilt nor time

we watched the seasons pass, we were as crystalline
as snow
and melted gently into newer forms
as stars spun around our heads

we had not learned betrayal

our selves were pearls
irritants transmuted into luster
and offered carelessly

our pearls became more precious and our sexes static
mutability grew a shell, we devised different languages
new words for new concepts, we invented alarm clocks
fences loyalty

still...even now...making a feint at communion
infinite perceptions
I remember
we have all been brothers
and offer carelessly

I was surprised I didn't like much of the poetry since the Beatniks influenced Bob Dylan. Maybe the problem was I didn't read it aloud.

[Joseph Spuckler · Rating 4 out of 5]

We are a legend, invisible but
legendary, as prophesied.
Allen Ginsberg

This is a small book, almost small enough for your pocket. Inside covers a wide range of poems. It is more than Ginsberg and Kerouac, but they are included. I recognized Leroi Jones' work, but as his later name Amiri Baraka. Twenty-eight poets make up this collection and the diversity of mood and messages are great. There is the gloom of the world and life without a future. The cold reclining on the steps of the library to a warmer personal type of poetry.

There is a bit of hopelessness in the series.

-- There are
enough fascists &
enough socialists
on both sides
so that no one will lose the war.
Diana Di Prima

My address book is full
of RIPs
Jack Kerouac

balanced to some extent with:

And here I am, the
center of all beauty!
writing these poems!
Imagine!
Frank O'Hara

The Lenore Kandel selection was enough for me to purchase her complete works. Although all poems may not appeal to all people, this is a good sampling of the period and will certainly open doors to those looking a new experience.

[Abbey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh God, this was a brutal read that lasted a slow six months. I know poetry and I don't mesh well - but this was a different beast. I suppose reading beat poetry, a kind of literature begging to be heard out loud, doesn't lend well to being read quietly. I bought this book about eight years ago when I had a brief love affair with watching beat poets on Youtube. This was not that. This was a collection of semi-incoherent ramblings from people who were pretentious before what I currently know as pretention was defined. The most interesting part of the book was contained in the last 20 pages: the statements on poetics. I'm glad I read that part and that part alone. I bookmarked a few poems probably because they gave me a small glimmer of feeling in an otherwise dry and limping collection. Sorry!

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was the best of lines, it was the worst of lines. The former; explosions in a word factory which propel vivid and inspired shrapnel into the reader. The latter, self-indulgent, pretentious proclaiming. Common themes and approaches include imagism, sex, drugs, the aesthetics of the city and the roll-calling of other poets, alive and dead. Whitman's influence looms large.

I was pleased to discover the work of Marie Ponsot.

[Madeleine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of these poems I already knew, but I found a few new possible favourites I want to get into more (Diane de Prima I´m looking at you). All in all a great introduction for anyone who´s not familiar with the Beats poetry. Beautyful edition as well and I really enjoyed the additional material at the end of the book.

[Genetic Cuckoo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a lovely little book of poetry, I picked it up in the library on a whim and then by coincidence watched 'kill my darlings' and understood the beat poets better and so really enjoyed reading their poetry. Not all of it is my taste, and much of it can be sexual or graphic, but it does interesting things to poetry.

[Eddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This pocket size collection is a great way to become introduced with the work of the best poets. The collection features a variety of authors and highlights samples of their work. If you are a fan of the beats or simply looking to get an over view of their poetic style than check this collection out!