smileymakaveli’s Reviews > Howl and Other Poems > Status Update

In the back of the real: This one reminds me of Shakur's Rose that Grew from Concrete.

Wild Orphan:

"Nostalgia usually attaches to one’s own past; here it’s as if the boy longs for a life he never lived but somehow feels in him. That’s the ache of the invented mythology: it can feel truer than the facts, and therefore hurt more."

Song:

Line 1 reads, "The weight of the world is love." Love is the heaviest, not the sweetest. Yet it is not seen here as a trap, it is depicted as the grounding reason for which we carry on with life's burdens. You give love, you fall in love, you long for love. All of this usually costs something though, and sometimes it is not what was expected, hence dissatisfaction. Then comes the yearn to return, somewhere.

In The Baggage Room At Greyhound:

Ginsberg's view on the baggage claim at a greyhound station is akin to the modern hustle bustle of an airport gate. A collective, common experience.

Exploring the literal act of travel, not the destination. Not so much emphasis on escapism, rather "dwelling in resignation". Impermanence.

America:

A poem about politics published in 1956 remains relevant, even in its details, seventy years later. #Waterloo

Ginsberg's social culture reference taught me some things; did you know about the predecessors of The Central Park 5—The Scottsboro Boys?

Was every "woke" poet a Marxist?

"[America,] You made me want to be a saint." vs. "There must be some other way to settle this argument."

"Sunflower Sutra: Ginsberg uses the sunflower to convey his views on industrialism. "Sweet natural eye to the new hip moon...". He compares himself and other poets to a locomotive—powerful, directive, dominant among an artistic landscape.

Favorite stanza - Poor dead flower? when did you forget you were a flower? when did you look at your skin and decide you were an impotent dirty old locomotive?"

Transcription Of Organ Music: To be so lonely. To be so creative. To be so gifted that you are cursed.

A Supermarket in California: Consumerism that consumes you. Satiation vs hunger fatigue. Cookie-cutter vs uniqueness (and the isolation that accompanies it). Enlightenment vs idealism.

I could write an essay about this poem.

Mary Jo Bang's commentary on Howl: "He registers his objection to the fact of their social outcast status, and highlights the contradiction between a country that says it welcomes difference but then fails to protect the rights of those who are different.