--- for all the dharma bums,
hanging out beneath broken
down bridges
I want to rant like a over sexed rooster, staggering toward
some decadent hen house full of skeletal politicians,
I want to blow out the pilot light on the stove
in White Houses that compose songs about burning
wheatfields and magnifying glasses that inspect
the lovers in every bedroom in America.
Get the hell out of our bucket of tears will you. . .
for Christ’s sake, release the scaffold you’ve got
draped around our unfulfilled mysteries
and archbishoped medicine cabinets full
of broken dreams.
Oh you cancered catastrophe conundrum of drop dead
open window blues, I blow my continental harmonica
up your swollen ass and blind your insightful eyes
with shooting stars and the poetry
of Charles Bukowski.
I have heard an ode of blistering pleutonium,
have met Jim Morrison inside the hidden doors
of his trembling sensitivity, watched as you battered
him senseless because he would not conform
to your biblical pablum and water fountain
of supposed normality.
Like a cockroach inside the guesthouse of a magnesium
monotony you bleed with the retired blood
of a 1940's radio station, offering nothing but
the same old static and untuned guitar chords
of a toilet bowl that flushes the remnants
of your pretentious bombs down the drain.
I traded in my new testament for a used copy
of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, I stripped myself naked
on a Kerouacian highway and ran screaming past
the sunflowers, chanting something about
the berries of a forgotten wisdom,
waving a Tibetan prayer flag from the portal
of my eyes.
And as the amphetamine parade marches on the legs
of expiring diplomats, as the molesting ministers
are unrepentant outside native sweat lodges,
as Hieronymus Bosch repaints his garden
of delights, I collect the crushed flowers
of our history and place them in an envelope
marked FOR GOD’S SAKE, RETURN TO SENDER.
So you skeletons peering through my window,
you purpled and bruised excuses of humanity,
get thee back inside the abstract abyss
where you belong, where mirrors of spiritual earthquake
will haunt you forever and let me get on
with the railroad truths spoken by the hobos of yesterday
when freedom was as simple as a meal around a campfire
and there were no epilogues of confining grief
in our coffee cups.
In a list
A contest entry
- Beat Generation by GirlAnachronism.
475 points, ended September 29, 2008, 18 entries
Silver trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest - A life to fly so high by NeverRegret.
400 points, ended December 3, 2008, 25 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest - I can't believe I'm doing this again Part Deux by NoUseForAName.
700 points, ended December 31, 2008, 25 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Please tell me what you think
Comments
1 - 25 of 25
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was trying to rush out the door and saw this entry of yours and had to read. How the hell that didnt take gold is beyond me. You mention all the great along the lost highway, and pen it in manner that could place you yourself amongst them. truly brilliant, I must concur with Mercedez. book markin this and would like to spotlight it on homepage with your approval.
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Tanks Adrian . . . I kinda like this one myself . . .
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Is this the new direction of American poetry? The beat baton picked up and run with again? Oh, I hope so!
This is like a shower of images, wonderful, enlivening.
Congratulations on the trophy.
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Pania . . . there are a few of us who were so impacted by the legacy that the Beats left us that we could not or would not remain silent. I sense a post Beat renaissance beginning to occur up here in Vancouver . . . let's hope that more can find the literary freedom that those of the 50's and 60's experienced . . .
Marc
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I am speechless
This is full of imagery and a lot of diffrent topics are going on. I liked the metion on Jim Morrison.
I see politcs in this, war,hate, a lot of things are going on like a party in a crowded room. Some of the voices in this poem are louder than some. Giving the poem a feel of having undertones. I am going to have to reread this a few times to get my head around this. I might have to sit down and read it with a pad and break it down and work it into a mind film so I can get all of the meaning I am getting in the above currents and then take a breath and dive deeper and hope I don't run out of oxogen. Great Write -
I think this would be better if you broke it up some. I mean as is it reads as one long sentence. It did have some nice things about it too. I liked the part that said for God's sake end back to the sender. Great imagery here. Thanks for sharing
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Sing to us Mr Creamore, fucking sing!
Dr Dog.
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wow, some really interesting lines and images, refreshing to see such an unusual rant, and not more of the same mindless bitchin'. Second poem in the last three I read that mentioned Bukowski. Is it ol' Hank's birthday or something? Write on.
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oh this is amazing. i love your references to Bukowski and Jim Morrison. my favourite part is the section with Ginsberg and Kerouac ( i adore Kerouac). this is such a great piece. thanks so much for entering!!
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Thanks for the silver goblet . . . We will, I am sure, be talking back and forth muchly in the future . . . I'm glad I met you . . .
Marc -
Thank you, much appreciated . . . I have often wondered why it is that more poets haven't followed the the lead of the Beats and further opened up the possibilities of language that they put forward in the 50's and 60's.
Marc
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I would love to have a cup of coffee with you someday
and I would bring the sweetener
this one has so many phrases I wish I had thought of
but you always seem to retain focus
are you a zen master Marc...lol
perhaps I shouldn't laugh
loved it
peace Muddy
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Muddy . . . funny that you should mention getting together over a cup of java . . . I was just pondering the other day how sweet it would be if a select group of us could some day gather somewhere . . . now that would be a hoot!!! As to be being a Zen master . . . don't I wish lol . . . Through Kerouac and the other Beats I guess I was introduced to things Asian at a young age and perhaps much of that study has filtered its way into my scribbles . . .
take care,
Marc
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You know my sentiments all too well
C
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Where did you say you were born . . . perhaps there is a genetic connection somewhere way back in our pasts lol
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Well the roots are Irish Marc so that probably account for the rebel in my soul
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Ah ha!! Then perhaps we are related then . . .
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lol My birth name before adoption was Coad, it has it's origins in Northern Ireland
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deleted for my protection
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Good to know Rob . . . but lets wait awhile for that one alright . . .
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Protect your ass in whatever way you can bro . . . I was just telling my daughter a couple of days ago that I am beginning to see an escalation in the temperment that was so prevelant back then when we were young and I gotta admit, it kind of unnerves me because I`m not sure if today`s youth are ready for the challenge . . . Ya send me the video files and I was serious when I asked you for copies of all your written work . . . I admire you a great deal, both as a poet and as a human be-ing and I feel a deep seeded desire, need to preserve your work in whatever way I can . . .
Marc -
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I have my entire body of work on disc and hard copy. When I'm gone it will be shipped to you. My wife has your info.
Glad someone likes/gets the stuff. lol.
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Yes!
What a perfect poem to read on this, the day I made my decision. If the republicans win another election after they have already killed the constitution, begun another world war against 60% of the earth's population in the guise of the latest christian crusade, and destroyed the middle class with a new reverse Robin Hood economic plan, I will be leaving the land I love as will most true patriots.
This land has disintigrated into an odd place where lies, spread by a mega-rich aussie,who profits from mayhem, to the lowest intellectual common denominater have swayed the recent elections in favor of two digit IQ Nazis that have reduced our nation to something akin to Germany under Hitler.
After I leave, I will be active in the campaign to remove the US from Nato and the UN as a Christian terrorist organization. I hope Canada will make room for a couple that believe that peace is more important than killing every Muslim on the planet for God and oil, and that saving the planet for our children is more important than luxury and viagra for a few spoiled old white men.
Capitalism is a failed experiment thas has, I fear, reduced us to a nation of blind, retarded sheep, and resulted in a condition in which torture is as acceptable as it was in the OTHER crusades and the inquisition. Odd that we end up here when we founded this nation as a way to escape theocracies
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Hey Rob... I feel your pain... The Republicans are pretty much guilty of all you've said, yet I believe you live in Michigan as I do and have seen the lack of Democrat ability to solve problems with any economic aplomb. Democrats in Lansing are making more bureaucracy, more layers to an already top-heavy government, more spending to an already busted budget. You've seen Kwami K. get booted from office... IN DETROIT where such shenanigans are commonplace. I feel your pain, but I see liberalism as the failed experiment that has reduced us to a nation of blind, retarded sheep, and resulted in a condition which has brought us to the edge of bankruptcy. Fanny & Freddie--created by FDR, revamped by Carter run as a personal piggybank by Democrats for Democrats! Jim Johnson, Franklin Raines both on Obama's board of advisors at one point or another... Jamie Gorelik, Andrew Cuomo... all Dems, all railroaded those institutions into the ground. You've heard the audio from 2004 on Hannity right? (That was a joke.) But if you had, there was Repube after Repube warning Dems of Fannie's fanny in the fire, but Bawny Fwank (pawdon da wisp) is refuting everyone "No! I don't see any signs of financial unstability!" Those bastards were buying the votes of poor people by putting them in homes that they couldn't afford knowing they (the Dem overseers) would run out of rope ~someday~ not giving a shit what it did to the rest of us. Barney's even on tape saying, "even if they do go under, the taxpayer wouldn't be held liable"!!! And who were the biggest recipients of campaign contributions from Fan & Fred and their ilk? Chris Dodd #1, Barack Obama #3 with Barney "Rubble" Frank vying for a place in there somewhere. Yeah, they set that all up and then bailed (Frank Raines with $90 mil, Gorelick with --I've heard $75 and $26 mil for her-- Daniel Mudd (correspondent Roger Mudd's son) with some amount that put him in a palatial abode.) Yeah, you can vent at the Repubeys... but leave some powder in your musket for the damned Dems too... my vote will be cancelling yours not because I have any faith in McCain, but rather Palin... she's beaten back the special interests before, fought corruption in her own party, has an 80% approval rating from her 650,000+ constituents and is the only possible beacon in this campaign. I was going to go Libertarian until McCain chose her... not for ex- Republican Bob Barr, but for his gamblin' buddy Wayne Allen Root... someone who has trained himself how to analyze a given situation, determine the odds, place a wager and win. Hey all the Ivy League mindbombs from both big parties have fucked things up beyond all recognition... try something with a radically different approach. It's probably pointless... we're all going to end up in Bilderberger heaven when we die anyway
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Rob . . . Sometimes your passion simply overwhelms me . . . Shit, I understand the deep gut frustration that you and many other decent Americans are feeling and what you have said in your comment is so bloody lucid, so spot on that I sometimes find myself tearing out the little bit of hair I have left on the top of my head BECAUSE NOBODY`S FUCKING LISTENING!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a friend, a singer/poet who recorded numerous albums during the 60's and 70's who feels the same way that you do . . . he has already purchased a home in Canada and I think will be moving here permanently in October (Tom Rapp, Pearls Before Swine) . . . But hey, I`m pissed off up here too . . . our bloody government just packed some kid back over the border because he was resisting the Iraqi war . . . We`re fucking going backwards, Christ we didn`t even do that during the 60`s . . . I just can`t get a handle on what the outcome is going to be in the next election down there . . . I`ll even go so far as to say that I am fearful that the assassination blues could rear its ugly head again because the evangelical blind eyed bastardization of human rights is so prevelant in today`s society. Even Kerouac, who leaned pretty far to right politically, would be infuriated with the overall political nature of the country at present.
I guess we`re just gonna have to wait and see what happens over the next few months . . . keep your pen poised, keep your rooftop clean, arm it with a microphone and speaker system bigger and more powerful than the White House because there may be a lot of voices wanting to join you in your campaign.
try to breathe easy brother, Marc
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