Beat Poetry Thread

[gaslight]

The Beat Poetry Thread

For those who are wondering...

Beat Poetry arose in the years and decades post-World War Two, originating in the same time period as what has come to be termed as "post-modernism" began to become a noticeable movement in art, literature, and philosophy. Beat poetry can be loosely explained through the simple analogy of post-modernism vs. modernism; a counter-culture of non-linear expressionism as opposed to adherence to conventions of high art.

Beat poetry is closely related to stream of consciousness writing and is characterised by a lack of adherence to standard formulas, patterns, and linguistic conventions (primarily grammar and syntax). Beat poetry often has a rambling feel to it but also maintains a sense of natural equilibrium with itself, the words have a certain rhythmic, however uneven, flow to them and often have a conversational register.

Notable beat poets include; Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S Burroughs, John Clellon Holmes, Neal Cassady, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

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Yeah. I am pretty sure there are a number of people on this board who already have/will soon realise they have a connection or at least interest to this style of writing.

So this thread has a few points.

1) Introduction to beat poetry for those who need an introduction to beat poetry.

Useful + interesting [URL=http://www.charm.net/~brooklyn/LitKicks.html]site[/url].

2) Provide a thread in which you can discuss beat poetry and it's relevancies to music (you will find many bands that utilise a lyrical style similar to beat poetry.)

3) Write and share your own beat poetry, which you may not feel like posting individually.

*Declares this the beatnik hang-out of the S&L forum.*

[LknChikn]

Interesting, but I'm still a little confused. I did a google search and came up with some "lyrics" that looked like random words put together. If applied with a beat, wouldn't this be the same as modern rap or hip-hop?

Or am I totally off? Maybe you could post some lyrics up.

[atabner]

Yeah, a link to an example would be great - I've got something that I wrote that was really disjointed, I decided to use it as a plan for a song, but from the sound of what you've written, it might do as a song in itself!

[gaslight]

Some examples from the writer's above mentioned.

(Also, Rage Against The Machine have performed an Allen Ginsberg poem live; Hadda Be Playin On The Jukebox.)

Here are some other examples though.

'Pictures of the Gone World' - Number 8

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

It was a face which darkness could kill
in an instant
a face as easily hurt
by laughter or light

'We think differently at night'
she told me once
lying back languidly

And she would quote Cocteau

'I feel there is an angel in me' she'd say
'whom I am constantly shocking'

Then she would smile and look away
light a cigarette for me
sigh and rise

and stretch
her sweet anatomy

let fall a stocking

'I Have Folded My Sorrows'

Bob Kaufman

I have folded my sorrows into the mantle of summer night,
Assigning each brief storm its alloted space in time,
Quietly pursuing catastrophic histories buried in my eyes.
And yes, the world is not some unplayed Cosmic Game,
And the sun is still ninety-three million miles from me,
And in the imaginary forest, the shingles hippo becomes the gay unicorn.
No, my traffic is not addled keepers of yesterday's disasters,
Seekers of manifest disewbowelment on shafts of yesterday's pains.
Blues come dressed like introspective echoes of a journey.
And yes, I have searched the rooms of the moon on cold summer nights.
And yes, I have refought those unfinished encounters. Still, they remain unfinished.
And yes, I have at times wished myself something different.
The tragedies are sung nightly at the funerals of the poet;
The revisited soul is wrapped in the aura of familiarity.

Point Lobos: Animism

Michael McClure

It is possible my friend
If I have had a fat belly
That the wolf lives on fat
Gnawing slowly
Through a visceral night of rancor.
It is possible that the absense of pain
May be so great
That the possibility of care
May be impossible.
Perhaps to know pain.
Anxiety, rather than the fear
Of the fear of anxiety.
This talk of miracles!

Of Animism:
I have been in a spot so full of spirits
That even the most joyful animist
Brooded
When all in sight was less to be cared about
Than death
And there was no noise in the ears
That mattered.
(I knelt in the shade
By a cold salt pool
And felt the entrance of hate
On many legs,
The soul like a clambering
Water vascular system.

No scuttling could matter
Yet I formed in my mind
The most beautiful
Of maxims.
How could I care
For your illness or mine?)
This talk of bodies!

It is impossible to speak
Of lupine or tulips
When one may read
His name
Spelled by the mold on the stumps
When the forest moves about one.
Heel. Nostril.
Light. Light! Light!
This is the bird's song
You may tell it
to your children.

There are some examples for you guys, but beat poetry is heaps varied so don't see those as definitive.

[gaslight]

Everyone hates beatniks...

[TrailOfTragedy]

'I Have Folded My Sorrows' is great! I enjoyed it more than other two, I guess because the words and imagry appealed to me more.

"The tragedies are sung nightly at the funerals of the poet" - my favorite line.

Hey gaslight, is this also a thread for people to post their own??

[Thevermiciousknid]

great thread idea gaslight, i always had taken a liking to beat poets, bob kaufman is awsome, my english teacher says he's seen him. If i get the chance i might post some links to beat poetry websites

[gaslight]

Originally Posted by TrailOfTragedy

'I Have Folded My Sorrows' is great! I enjoyed it more than other two, I guess because the words and imagry appealed to me more.

"The tragedies are sung nightly at the funerals of the poet" - my favorite line.

Hey gaslight, is this also a thread for people to post their own??

Yeah man.

[TrailOfTragedy]

Would you mind starting it off?

[peepo]

errr quit jivin me turkey!

[gaslight]

Originally Posted by TrailOfTragedy

Would you mind starting it off?

If I get around to doing some I will but really anyone can go it.

[gaslight]

Fine I'll try some...

7:30 every day
Walk blindly down the same street and in mirrors
See from the sidewalk and from shop windows
And in every reflection there is a different
Way of being and in every reflection there is the exact same thing

In a coffee shop I can see a man sitting
In the same place he sits every single day
Sipping his coffee like it's an antidote to his somnambulism
And when he speaks he talks as if to say
That his life is already over
And has been from start to finish a hundred times before
And he knows every thing that went wrong and every way
He could fix it
And everyway that everyone else could have been less obstructive
And if it weren't for genetics he could be everybody

There were no paths left
Without footprints in wet concrete
And somebody says aloud
"What a city we live in," and they sigh and reflect
That everywhere we go someone else as been before,
Evidently as soon as possible,
And there is nowhere new for us to go,
And that everything has been done before,
And that if anything, we are following the same old tracks
Worn into the ground since we first started walking and wearing
Only with new layers upon layers that obscured what went before
And our lives have all been run a hundred times before
And our lives are already over

*Blinks. Shrugs.*

[pixiesfanyo]

would you guys consider "where the circle ends" by thursday beat poetry?

[gaslight]

I was thinking of that one actually, when I was going to relate it to modern music, but I wasn't sure if I would be correct.

I've heard Radiohead lyrics described as beat poetry, and yeah, to me, that song does seem to have qualities of it.

[Spikey]

ah, I love Jack Kerouac! hm I tried to write some beat poetry once, but it's bad and crap.

[mitchellspider]

Gaslight was that your own piece? That was full of thought and truth. I could see each line being spoken and the expression of the speaker. Thanks a lot for introducing me to beat poetry and for posting yours, i thoroughly enjoyed it.

That everywhere we go someone else as been before,
Evidently as soon as possible,

That line got me thinking. To me it seems so humbly honest, if that makes any sense?

And if it weren't for genetics he could be everybody

I have seen people around my area who must think that exact same thing, probably not so poetically but in their eyes it seems like they believe that statement.

Yea thanks again and id love to hear more of your own stuff

cheers gaslight

[gaslight]

Yeah it was, I just kind of wrote in about five or ten minutes .

I'm very glad you liked it, thanks .

I wish more people would start to post some stuff though.

[TrailOfTragedy]

I'm going to try to get around to writing one this afternoon.

[UnderDawg]

I don't really understand what beat poetry is, I mean I read the site but I'm still lost as to what it actually is....

[TrailOfTragedy]

Pretty much (if I'm not mistaken, gaslight should probably be answering this) its just stream of consciousness writing.