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London Zoo: Beat poetry thread

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      CommentAuthorVornaskotti
    • CommentTimeJul 1st 2011 edited
     (9995.1)
    In this thread, beat poetry. Like it? Want to do it? Already doing it? Hints and tips for someone who wants to start.
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      CommentAuthorBen Johnson
    • CommentTimeJul 1st 2011 edited
     (9995.2)
    Well...







    and: Del Close

    And a chaser:

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      CommentAuthorinfomancer
    • CommentTimeJul 2nd 2011
     (9995.3)
    Beat poetry is some of the only poetry I can still read. Everything else seems so forced, like the authors chose from a list of poetry-words to make it sound extra poemy.

    As far as tips for writing in the same vein, I think listening is the biggest thing. Even at its most disjointed, Beat verse was really focused on rhythm. Listen to Ginsberg and Kerouac read, there's some great recordings of them. Corso, too, with his weird voice. Listen to a lot of Bird, Dizzy, and Monk, whose bop jazz work informed a lot of the rhythm of the original Beat poetry. Of course, I'm not suggesting that you write within the Jazz context necessarily, that would just make your work sound like theirs. But it's helpful to see the way they translated their total environment into their work. To really get at what their point was, I think you'd have to write with your own context in mind, to get into your own rhythms.
  4.  (9995.4)
    I just liked Mike Meyers in So I Married an Ax Murderer.
    • CommentAuthorVerissimus
    • CommentTimeJul 2nd 2011 edited
     (9995.5)
    Bad poetry with a rock star attitude?

    No thanks.

    edit: disregard! Sorry for being an ass. Ginsberg was quite awesome.
  6.  (9995.6)
    Jack FUCKING Kerouac

    Or

    "The Day the Saucers Came" by Mr. Gaiman

    "Instructions" by Mr. Gaiman

    Apologies for posting Mr. Gaiman, I misread it as BEST poetry thread.
  7.  (9995.7)
    Not a beat poet, but a proto beat, you might want to look up William Carlos Williams.
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      CommentAuthoroddbill
    • CommentTimeJul 3rd 2011 edited
     (9995.8)
    This is my spoken word piece about a kiss in a punk club. It is beat influenced. Beatish.



    I also need to practice it a little more.
    • CommentAuthorD-
    • CommentTimeJul 3rd 2011
     (9995.9)
    this?
    • CommentAuthorlucien
    • CommentTimeJul 3rd 2011 edited
     (9995.10)
    well, here's the vastly underappreciated kenneth patchen, whose best work is not on youtube.





    as far as tips go, i've been a poim monkey for awhile and been to my fair share of the open mics and what have you. i have to say that as much as i like some of the original beat stuff i get pretty tired of hearing people cop that style for their own work. seems all one hears is the beat style, the hip hop style, or the slam style all of which get old pretty quick as far as i'm concerned and tend to detract from actual poetry which is about giving voice to the breath of life that moves through you, for lack of a better way of putting it. if you're serious about poetry i'd recommend cultivating that capacity rather than doing beat poetry, but hell, whatever floats your boat.
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      CommentAuthortexture
    • CommentTimeJul 4th 2011
     (9995.11)
    A rather old video of me doing my thing. I consider myself a beat poet I guess.

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      CommentAuthorCamyLuna
    • CommentTimeJul 6th 2011 edited
     (9995.12)
    @lucien Good call on Kenneth Patchen.

    If you were looking to write in the Beat style, it might be helpful to look at some of the people that may be considered as proto or kinda pre-Beat. People like Kenneth Rexroth, Galway Kinnel, WS Merwin, Denise Levertov. All post WWII poets writing what's loosely defined as open form.

    There are two really great collections - Naked Poetry: Recent American Poetry in Open Forms (1969) and New Naked Poetry (1976). Ginsberg is in there, too. So are a lot of others writing in that era.

    edited to include this link to book info: About Naked Poetry
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      CommentAuthorDovryn
    • CommentTimeJul 6th 2011
     (9995.13)
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      CommentAuthoroddbill
    • CommentTimeJul 7th 2011
     (9995.14)
    I love that Minchin piece.
  15.  (9995.15)
    Very good pointers here and damn, actually Storm was the thing that got the very old idea of trying something like this running again for me. Brilliant stuff.

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