Audio: Gregory Corso reads his poem “Marriage”
Beat generation poet Gregory Corso reads his classic poem “Marriage” from his book, The Happy Birthday of Death, first published in 1960.
Abby Zimet: Rest In Poetry
We bid fond farewell to Lawrence Ferlinghetti, indefatigable poet, publisher, painter, pacifist, iconoclast, political activist, “heart of the Beat generation” and “legend of American letters, bookselling, rabble rousing, wild dreaming.”
Tom Engelhardt: Beyond Our Control
It was summer almost half a century ago when I got into that Volkswagen van and began my trip across country with Peter, a photographer friend. I was officially doing so as a reporter for a small San Francisco news service, having been sent out to tap the mood of the nation in a politically fraught moment.
Allen Ginsberg: Sunflower Sutra
Jack Kerouac sat beside me on a busted rusty iron pole, companion, we thought the same thoughts of the soul, bleak and blue and sad-eyed, surrounded by the gnarled steel roots of trees of machinery.
Joan E. Bauer: Get Your Kicks
This August my niece Holly will drive
the Mother Road. She’s a writer & I say:
Don’t miss anything: not cornfields, chili fries,
maple syrup farms, not the Big Texan
Steak House in dusty Amarillo…
Michael Simms: Bus
One afternoon at a bus stop in Ruston, Louisiana we picked up a single passenger, a huge man in a dirty plaid shirt, grease-stained khakis, and unlaced boots covered in mud.
Gerald Fleming: City of Breath
People here stop and listen to children’s conversations. People here not only wait in line—say, at the bakery—but in that line come to agreement as to who rightly should go first—the frail old man, for instance, who has trouble with his legs, the mother who needs to hurry home & cook, the busboy from the café sent to buy more bread for a sudden crowd, and only then the couple, plenty of time, buying bread for dinner.
Thomas Sayers Ellis: Godzilla’s Avocado
An artichoke’s heart does not pump ketchup.
It pumps pesto,
oily, olive clots of guacamole.
Video: The New York Public Library’s Collection of Weird Objects
. A lock of Walt Whitman’s hair, Jack Kerouac’s boots, and Virginia Woolf’s cane are just a few of the items of literary paraphernalia available at the New York Public … Continue reading
Audio: Jack Kerouac reads “October in the Railroad Earth”
Jack Kerouac’s paean to San Francisco. Jack Kerouac (born Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969) was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a … Continue reading
Video: Jack Kerouac — “McDougall Street Blues”
Jack Kerouac speaks while Steve Allen plays jazz piano. With video clips of New York City in the 1950’s and 60’s. A beautiful piece of collaborative work capturing the mood … Continue reading
Jose Padua: Baltimore
I realize I quote her as often as Allen Ginsberg quoted Jack Kerouac, but when she was three my daughter said, “It’s not crazy—it’s Baltimore,” then proceeded to improvise better … Continue reading
Jack Kerouac (rare footage) / Cat Power – Good Woman
Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Lucian Carr, and others in New York 1959… set to soundtrack of “Good Woman” by Cat Power.
Vox Populi 