Poem of the Day - Part 23

 Howl

by Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) was an American poet, one of the voices of the Beat Generation.  He is most famous for his poem Howl, written in 1954-1955, which denounced the destructive forces of capitalism and conformity.  Above is a young Ginsberg, at left, with his friend Gregory Corso.

Ginsberg was bisexual but predominantly gay.  Above is Richard Avedon's portrait of Ginsberg, at right, and his lifelong partner Peter Orlovsky, left, in 1963.

Howl contained explicit references to both straight and gay sex.  At the time, gay sex was a crime in every state.  The poem was the subject of an obscenity trial in 1957 that got widespread publicity.  The judge ruled that Howl was not obscene, having "redeeming social importance."  Today it's considered one of the great works of American literature.

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The poem is much too long for me to quote the whole thing.  Here are a few excerpts that I've accompanied with photos and GIFs.

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, ...

who got busted in their pubic beards returning through Laredo with a belt of marijuana for New York, ...

who howled on their knees in the subway 

(Sculpture of Olympic decathlete Jürgen Hingsen by Arno Breker, 1984)

and were dragged off the roof waving genitals and manuscripts,

who let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists, and screamed with joy,

(Photo: Two Bikers by AMG.  I got this photo from the blog Men From Back Then.  Thanks, James!) 

who blew and were blown by those human seraphim, the sailors, caresses of Atlantic and Caribbean love,

who balled in the morning in the evenings in rosegardens and the grass of public parks and cemeteries scattering their semen freely to whomever come who may ...