RIGHT NOW WE LOVE (MAY)
submitted by Karin

Howl by Allen Ginsberg

I recently came upon Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl". I've always considered myself well-read and have tackled most of the Beat writers, albeit mostly the prose, but curiously I had never managed to read Ginsberg. From the first lines I was mesmerized...

"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,
Angel-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of the night."

It made me once again aware of how incredibly generic life seems to have become. Where are the rebels, the wanderers now? This poem made me long for a time when people were living life on their own terms and looking for, and creating their own personal adventures. I've not heard so much intensity and beauty in a very long time. The fact that it was first performed in 1955, during such conservative times (it was the subject of an obscenity trial in 1957) makes it all the more interesting to read today. It charges me up, makes me want to read more and to create more frequently.

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