Allen Ginsberg - Challenging the Norms

Today the English language celebrates many famous poets and among those stands the name of the 20th century poet Allen Ginsberg. His claim to fame is the controversial and norm-changing poem "Howl." Using extremely crass yet day to day vocabulary Ginsberg tried to illustrate the true meaning of the phrase "freedom of expression."

This poem, and other works by Ginsberg, became so controversial that it all led to a famous trial where the publisher of Howl was charged with spreading non-literary works. The trial was eventually won by the publisher when the judge declared that the poem definitely had literary merit and just becasue someone uses a different set of words to express their feelings does not necessarily mean it is wrong.

You may end up disagreeing with Ginsberg's lifestyle or choice of words but you will accept one thing: He was a brave fellow, ready to take matters into his own hands. His poem Howl is a commentary on life and how an ordinary person goes about it.

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 night,

Maybe out there, somewhere among our readers there is someone like Ginsberg who realizes that he has what it takes to not only say what is right, but to challenge others who conform to the society's norms and are afraid to step out.

Here is an interesting poem by Allen Ginsberg:

Homework

Homage to Kenneth Koch

If I were doing my Laundry I'd wash my dirty Iran
I'd throw in my United States, and pour on the Ivory Soap,
scrub up Africa, put all the birds and elephants back in
the jungle,
I'd wash the Amazon river and clean the oily Carib & Gulf of Mexico,
Rub that smog off the North Pole, wipe up all the pipelines in Alaska,
Rub a dub dub for Rocky Flats and Los Alamos, Flush that sparkly
Cesium out of Love Canal
Rinse down the Acid Rain over the Parthenon & Sphinx, Drain the Sludge
out of the Mediterranean basin & make it azure again,
Put some blueing back into the sky over the Rhine, bleach the little
Clouds so snow return white as snow,
Cleanse the Hudson Thames & Neckar, Drain the Suds out of Lake Erie
Then I'd throw big Asia in one giant Load & wash out the blood &
Agent Orange,
Dump the whole mess of Russia and China in the wringer, squeeze out
the tattletail Gray of U.S. Central American police state,
& put the planet in the drier & let it sit 20 minutes or an
Aeon till it came out clean 


Adil Majid 

Source of Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp1-iIp1UB7f1SoBmBjlDGmh6M-9q61gEal64h6eBe7cVdlZbyoe4pESxpS5QEKD-V5IKftGQoHRcetr0RBzwgIp9QTh20O3eKL7570GDXqekQWoT_D_qbg9HpIqKNzaUOUQ2PuNZYPpE/s1600/AllenGinsberg.jpg