Flash poetry review: Howl by Allen Ginsberg

Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's hard to believe these poems were written almost 65 years ago. Rereading them for the first time since uni days I'm struck as much now by their rawness as I was then. By the carnality, the wild spirit in them, the genuine thirst for freedom. The humour and frustration and wonder at the capitalist amerikee they were born into in all of its machine weirdness and grotesquetity. Well, it's the spirit of the Beats, well documented as it is. Sure this collection is flawed, dated now in terminology, sexual politics and more but they did something the Beats. Howl is great.



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