HOMAGE TO GINSBERG: Tribute to a 20th Century Beat Poet

The queerness in me, the queerness in you—
it pales before the wild, brutal strangeness
of 20th-century America,
a land that ravages the earth,
twists souls in violent surrender,
and slays what it dares not understand.

A heavy weight of karma, no question.

Sing a kaddish for its poisoned Big Macs,
then spit out its gnawed, bitter apples of disillusion
while chanting Yankee-doodle-dandy.

If we howl into the abyss,
chanting the sacred nonsense of truth,
perhaps some souls will stir from their slumber.

First, however, we must  face our own madness,
and acknowledge our own hands in cosmic disasters.

Aren't most imagined enemies all too similar to us?
Aren't the hypocrites we despise mirrors  our own convolutions?

Despite numerous nefarious entanglements,
at times closet doors of realization creak open,
since poetry, mysterious in its power,
still carries forces to shatter illusions.


Terri: 	(shaking her head) Was America really as weird as Ginsberg suggested?

Ted: 	Yeah. In many ways America could be described as an Evil Empire:
               Many incarnations of Mamon live comfortably at the Capital.

Terri: 	And what did Alan Ginsberg do about it?

Tim: 	(shrugging his shoulders) What could any person do? 
              Name the monstrosity and pray for awakening.


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from _AmeriSong: Poetry, Art, & Dialogs about Amerika_ by T Newfields
SUMMARY:  A graphic image, poem, and dialogue in memory of Allan Ginsberg (1926 - 1997).
KEYWORDS: American poets, American terror, queer poetry, 20th Century America

Author: T Newfields [Nitta Hirou / Huáng Yuèwǔ] (b. 1955)
Begun: 2001 in Nagoya, Japan / Finished: 2025 in Shizuoka, Japan
Creative Commons License: Attribution. {{CC-BY-4.0}} Granted

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TRANSLATIONS

ESPAÑOL      https://www.tnewfields.info/es/gins.htm
NIHONGO      https://www.tnewfields.info/jp/ginzubaagu.htm
ZHŌNGWÉN  https://www.tnewfields.info/zh/jinsibao.htm