As was suggested in class, I played around with the final line of the first stanza. I would love to hear what you thought about it. It used to be the line about the eastern bound train.
I grow weary as the year veers drearily on
And with tears in my ears and such pain
I drink beers to mask fears of a cheerier year
Though it's clear I should switch champaign
Often shouting aloud in a close quartered crowd
I am proud to move ‘round the mundane
But this fast growing shroud like a cover of clouds
Will resound over radiant plains
You may ask why this mask grows ever vast,
alas
As will pass with each seasons refrain
In whose beauty we basked through each day as it passed
Autumns dance seems a trance once again
Monday, October 27, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Angels from New Jersey
I believe in angels.
I believe in an angel.
My angel knows all the angles.
She drinks Jack, smokes Reds
Swears like a sailor, fucks like a dream.
She smells like angels aught to smell.
Tastes like angels aught to taste.
My angel is rough around the edges
And smoother than silk.
And the way my angel dances...
you should see her dance.
I found her in New Jersey,
The land of Angels.
This was the original poem, but it required some changes. I thought I would post it here anyway, so you could see hwo i revised it.
I believe in angels.
I believe in an angel.
My angel knows all the angles.
She drinks.
She smokes.
She swears like a sailor
And fucks like a dream.
My angel has an ace up her sleeve
And slips it to me when im down on my luck.
My angel is rough around the edges
And smooth as silk.
When I wake up in the morning
Her naked body next to mine
A miracle with bed head and morning breath
I believe in angels.
I believe in an angel.
My angel knows all the angles.
She drinks Jack, smokes Reds
Swears like a sailor, fucks like a dream.
She smells like angels aught to smell.
Tastes like angels aught to taste.
My angel is rough around the edges
And smoother than silk.
And the way my angel dances...
you should see her dance.
I found her in New Jersey,
The land of Angels.
This was the original poem, but it required some changes. I thought I would post it here anyway, so you could see hwo i revised it.
I believe in angels.
I believe in an angel.
My angel knows all the angles.
She drinks.
She smokes.
She swears like a sailor
And fucks like a dream.
My angel has an ace up her sleeve
And slips it to me when im down on my luck.
My angel is rough around the edges
And smooth as silk.
When I wake up in the morning
Her naked body next to mine
A miracle with bed head and morning breath
I believe in angels.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Michael Earl Craig
Born: 1970
Years Active: Presently active
Genre: Surrealist
Biography
Michael Craig is most definitely not Hemmingway, nor is he Mark Twain. He is clearly not Edgar Allen Poe and would laugh at being compared to Hunter S. Thompson. In fact, at first glance, the only thing that would seem remotely poetic about Michael Earl Craig is how completely ordinary and unpoetic his life seems. He is a man who is drenched in normality. Yet, often within the most average and unassuming man lies the soul of a poet. Such is the case with Craig.
Michael Earl Craig was born in 1970. The details of his life seem to be a well-kept secret. Whether this is of his own wishes, or simply a lack of public interest, it is hard to say. All that is known about him is that he is currently living in Livingston, Montana, where he works as a farrier, making horseshoes and taking care of horse hooves. While he has only published a small amount of books, his poems have appeared in such magazines and journals as Verse, Volt, Jubilat, Cutbank, The Iowa Review, Dunes Review, and Provincetown Arts.
There seems to be a very inviting quality about Craig’s work. He has a tendency to open his poems by welcoming the reader in casually and without any real force as in, Master Chang and Student, which he starts off “Something came to mind this morning:/ a pudding esplanade.” From there, his ability to put together humorous two-liners encourages the reader and holds their interest as in the line from the same poem, “Ideal for Sigourney Weaver tombstone:/ You saw my panties in alien.” Perhaps the most recognizable theme in Craig’s poems is his uncanny ability to pick out seemingly unimportant and mundane details that would likely have gone overlooked and give them great import. It leaves the reader with a feeling of, “well I guess I always saw it that way, I just never really thought about it.”
Major Works:
2002: You Can Relax In My House
2004: Isn’t it Romantic
2006: Yes, Master
Moods:
Humorous – “When I look at the box of Twinkies/ They make me want to puke./ I eat ten of them./ Ten is all I can eat./ Now two remain, and I look at them./ For some reason I don’t feel so sick./ I don’t feel sick at all./ I think I can eat them” from Untitled.
Outlandish – “Today you strike me as needing something./ So take my ten-thousand-pound typewriter . . ./ . . . For here is an older,/ other world, taking almost forty sheep to make one sock.” from Can You Relax In My House
Naturalistic- “A horse is walked before me/ and needs her toes shortened”
Absurd – “I’d like to see just once/ the rabbit box this hawk”
Ironic – “On my way to see my therapist/… She always cries during out sessions.” from Seashore.
Groups or Movements
Surrealist
The surrealist movement began in Europe during the early 1920’s as a reaction to the harsh realities of World War I. Unlike the movements predecessor, the Dada movement, which focused on “anti-art”, setting out to deliberately break rules and defy reason, the surrealist movement emphasized positive expression. It sprung up as the antithesis of rationalism, which many believed was the mind-set responsible for guiding Europe into both of the World Wars. Rather than view the world as strictly black and white and constrained by what seemed plausible and concrete, surrealist writers tried to achieve a joining of the dreams and reality. Their goal was the joining of the conscious and the unconscious through artistic expression.
One of the prevailing traits of Michael Earl Craig’s work is his ability to take that which seems commonplace and ordinary and make seem extraordinary. His way of looking at the world are unapologetically unique and individualize, a point which he is quick to point that out and does so in his poem, Ways of Dealing, after describing a collection of money he is handling, “The bills smell like sharkskin,/ shake like celebrity boobs./ You can’t leave it to me to describe your world.”
Similar Artist
James Tate
Much like Craig, James Tate is a master of imagery and has a tendency towards a chaotic style According to Tate, “I like being in the world of Michael Craig's poems. Anything can happen, and probably will, and it will affect me in small or large ways that I couldn't have imagined. The precision of their imagery keeps me reeling with delight.” Both Tate and Craig have a level of insight into the surreal and ability to make the normal seem strangely bizarre and the bizarre seem mundanely normal.
Follower
Ian Kunkes (me)
I know this may seem like a cop out, but bear with me. In trying to do this assignment, I was forced to truly dig for each and every scrap of information and poetry available, which was no easy task. In doing so, I was only able to find a very small amount of his poetry. I managed to find a very short interview with him that I found particularly interesting and inspiring. In it, he talks about his work as a farrier. He talks about how much he loves his job, where he gets to work with his hands, using tools that have been around for centuries. He is a man who has a true passion for his job. He also talks about why, given this passion for his day job, he continues to work as a poet. What he basically says is that he loves how ordinary, yet profound he feels his job is, on top fo the fact that it pays the bills. He also talks about this is what influences him to write. He has a way of looking at the world where he is constantly finding things in life that others wouldn’t find and he is abel to express them through poetry. So what it comes down to, is I am inspired by a man who is passionate about his day job, no matter how common-place it may be, and who finds poetry in the ordinary.
Influenced by
Andre Brenton
Brenton is credited as being the founder of the surrealist movement with his book, The Manifesto of Surrealism. Until he started writing, that which we would have considered surreal had a very negative and almost nihilistic view of the world as it was a reaction to the harsh conditions of Europe during World War I. Brenton decided to take a different approach and put a positive spin on fantastical and surreal approaches to literature. He opened the door for other writers, like Craig, to find bizarre humor in unconscious connections in every day life.
Benjamin Peret
Peret was considered the first surrealist poet. His work is characterized by a wild and unrestrained style, which I see in many of Craig’s works. Additionally, Peret, like Craig, has a tendency to go off on tangents about the most common place events and details, until the reader is forced to question what the point is, only to allow his imagination to run amok on the idea with little regard. This is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting and appealing aspects of both poets writing.
Sites Consulted:
http://www.foumagazine.net/MEC.htm
http://www.hoboeye.com/word1.htm
http://greatamericanpinup.blogspot.com/2005/08/can-you-relax-in-my-housemichael-earl.html
http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/fence-journal.html
http://www.bearparade.com/2006/04/touch_my_omeletby_michael_earl.html
http://reviews.coldfrontmag.com/2006/11/yes_master_by_m.html
http://www.surrealist.com/
http://alangullette.com/lit/surreal/
Years Active: Presently active
Genre: Surrealist
Biography
Michael Craig is most definitely not Hemmingway, nor is he Mark Twain. He is clearly not Edgar Allen Poe and would laugh at being compared to Hunter S. Thompson. In fact, at first glance, the only thing that would seem remotely poetic about Michael Earl Craig is how completely ordinary and unpoetic his life seems. He is a man who is drenched in normality. Yet, often within the most average and unassuming man lies the soul of a poet. Such is the case with Craig.
Michael Earl Craig was born in 1970. The details of his life seem to be a well-kept secret. Whether this is of his own wishes, or simply a lack of public interest, it is hard to say. All that is known about him is that he is currently living in Livingston, Montana, where he works as a farrier, making horseshoes and taking care of horse hooves. While he has only published a small amount of books, his poems have appeared in such magazines and journals as Verse, Volt, Jubilat, Cutbank, The Iowa Review, Dunes Review, and Provincetown Arts.
There seems to be a very inviting quality about Craig’s work. He has a tendency to open his poems by welcoming the reader in casually and without any real force as in, Master Chang and Student, which he starts off “Something came to mind this morning:/ a pudding esplanade.” From there, his ability to put together humorous two-liners encourages the reader and holds their interest as in the line from the same poem, “Ideal for Sigourney Weaver tombstone:/ You saw my panties in alien.” Perhaps the most recognizable theme in Craig’s poems is his uncanny ability to pick out seemingly unimportant and mundane details that would likely have gone overlooked and give them great import. It leaves the reader with a feeling of, “well I guess I always saw it that way, I just never really thought about it.”
Major Works:
2002: You Can Relax In My House
2004: Isn’t it Romantic
2006: Yes, Master
Moods:
Humorous – “When I look at the box of Twinkies/ They make me want to puke./ I eat ten of them./ Ten is all I can eat./ Now two remain, and I look at them./ For some reason I don’t feel so sick./ I don’t feel sick at all./ I think I can eat them” from Untitled.
Outlandish – “Today you strike me as needing something./ So take my ten-thousand-pound typewriter . . ./ . . . For here is an older,/ other world, taking almost forty sheep to make one sock.” from Can You Relax In My House
Naturalistic- “A horse is walked before me/ and needs her toes shortened”
Absurd – “I’d like to see just once/ the rabbit box this hawk”
Ironic – “On my way to see my therapist/… She always cries during out sessions.” from Seashore.
Groups or Movements
Surrealist
The surrealist movement began in Europe during the early 1920’s as a reaction to the harsh realities of World War I. Unlike the movements predecessor, the Dada movement, which focused on “anti-art”, setting out to deliberately break rules and defy reason, the surrealist movement emphasized positive expression. It sprung up as the antithesis of rationalism, which many believed was the mind-set responsible for guiding Europe into both of the World Wars. Rather than view the world as strictly black and white and constrained by what seemed plausible and concrete, surrealist writers tried to achieve a joining of the dreams and reality. Their goal was the joining of the conscious and the unconscious through artistic expression.
One of the prevailing traits of Michael Earl Craig’s work is his ability to take that which seems commonplace and ordinary and make seem extraordinary. His way of looking at the world are unapologetically unique and individualize, a point which he is quick to point that out and does so in his poem, Ways of Dealing, after describing a collection of money he is handling, “The bills smell like sharkskin,/ shake like celebrity boobs./ You can’t leave it to me to describe your world.”
Similar Artist
James Tate
Much like Craig, James Tate is a master of imagery and has a tendency towards a chaotic style According to Tate, “I like being in the world of Michael Craig's poems. Anything can happen, and probably will, and it will affect me in small or large ways that I couldn't have imagined. The precision of their imagery keeps me reeling with delight.” Both Tate and Craig have a level of insight into the surreal and ability to make the normal seem strangely bizarre and the bizarre seem mundanely normal.
Follower
Ian Kunkes (me)
I know this may seem like a cop out, but bear with me. In trying to do this assignment, I was forced to truly dig for each and every scrap of information and poetry available, which was no easy task. In doing so, I was only able to find a very small amount of his poetry. I managed to find a very short interview with him that I found particularly interesting and inspiring. In it, he talks about his work as a farrier. He talks about how much he loves his job, where he gets to work with his hands, using tools that have been around for centuries. He is a man who has a true passion for his job. He also talks about why, given this passion for his day job, he continues to work as a poet. What he basically says is that he loves how ordinary, yet profound he feels his job is, on top fo the fact that it pays the bills. He also talks about this is what influences him to write. He has a way of looking at the world where he is constantly finding things in life that others wouldn’t find and he is abel to express them through poetry. So what it comes down to, is I am inspired by a man who is passionate about his day job, no matter how common-place it may be, and who finds poetry in the ordinary.
Influenced by
Andre Brenton
Brenton is credited as being the founder of the surrealist movement with his book, The Manifesto of Surrealism. Until he started writing, that which we would have considered surreal had a very negative and almost nihilistic view of the world as it was a reaction to the harsh conditions of Europe during World War I. Brenton decided to take a different approach and put a positive spin on fantastical and surreal approaches to literature. He opened the door for other writers, like Craig, to find bizarre humor in unconscious connections in every day life.
Benjamin Peret
Peret was considered the first surrealist poet. His work is characterized by a wild and unrestrained style, which I see in many of Craig’s works. Additionally, Peret, like Craig, has a tendency to go off on tangents about the most common place events and details, until the reader is forced to question what the point is, only to allow his imagination to run amok on the idea with little regard. This is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting and appealing aspects of both poets writing.
Sites Consulted:
http://www.foumagazine.net/MEC.htm
http://www.hoboeye.com/word1.htm
http://greatamericanpinup.blogspot.com/2005/08/can-you-relax-in-my-housemichael-earl.html
http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/fence-journal.html
http://www.bearparade.com/2006/04/touch_my_omeletby_michael_earl.html
http://reviews.coldfrontmag.com/2006/11/yes_master_by_m.html
http://www.surrealist.com/
http://alangullette.com/lit/surreal/
Gregory Corso
Born: March, 26 1930
Years Active: 1955-1989. Although Gregory Corso continued to write periodically until the time of his death, he published his last major work in 1989.
Genre: Beat Poetry
Biography
Gregory Corso was born Nunzio Corso, in New York City’s Greenwich Village, to parents Sam and Michelina Corso. It wasn’t until the time of his confirmation that he assumed the name Gregory Corso. Only one month after his birth, Michelina abandoned Gregory, leaving him in his father’s care who soon after placed him into foster care. At the young age of 13, Gregory was living on the streets of New York City where he slept in subways and on rooftops and would run errands for local merchants in exchange for food. Before he had turned 17, Gregory had already served three stints jail, one of which was served in the Clinton Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in New York state. While in Clinton, he spent his time reading and studying extensively began writing poetry.
After leaving Clinton, he returned to New York City, where he lived and was supported as an “artist-in-residence” at the Pony Stable, an openly lesbian bar in Greenwich Village. It was there that he met Allen Ginsberg, who took an immediate liking to Corso and introduced him to other beat poets, including Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. In 1957, Corso, along with Ginsberg and Burroughs moved to Paris and lived in a hostel known for housing musicians artists and writers, that later became known as the Beat Hotel. During his time there, he wrote one of his greatest collections of poems, Bombs and Marriage, before returning to New York City towards the end of 1958.
When the trio of writers returned home, they were surprised to find that a powerful social movement had sprung up in their wake, known commonly as the Beatnik movement. Unlike many of his Beatnik contemporaries, Corso was not pleased at having achieved a certain level of celebrity within the movement, being dubbed “The Last Beat” and always shyed away from public appearances. After Ginsberg’s death, Corso returned over seas where retraced his own footsteps from their original European trip.
While in Paris, Corso gave his permission for filmmaker Gustave Reiningerto to do a documentary on his life. In an unusual turn of events, Reiningerto managed to locate Corso’s mother, who he thought had died in Italy She was living in Trenton, New Jersey. During their on camera reunion, Gregory discovered that his mother, who his father had denounced as a whore and told him had moved back to Italy, only abandoned him because she was the victim of vicious abuse at the hand of his father. Her intention was to provide him a better life by leaving him in the hands of the Catholic Charities. Despite attempting to find him later in life, his father had ensured that she never was able to. The two formed a strong bond until he succumbed to prostate cancer on January 17, 2001, and died.
Works Consulted:
1955: The Vestal Lady and Other Poems
1955: This Hung-Up Age
1958: Gasoline
1958: Bomb
1960: The Happy Birthday of Death
1960: Minutes to Go (In collaboration with Sinclair Beiles, William S. Burroughs, and Brion Gysin.)
1961: The American Express
1962: Long Live Man
1965: There is Yet Time to Run Back through Life and Expiate All That's been Sadly Done
1970: Elegiac Feelings American
1972: The Night Last Night was at its Nightest
1974: Earth Egg
1979: Writings from OX
1981: Herald of the Autochthonic Spirit
1989: Mind Field
1989: Mindfield: New and Selected Poems
Moods:
Intense – “Being dead didn’t mean much/I still felt the pain where the bullet went through” from In the Morgue: a dream.
Whimsical – “Oh, dear! Oh, me! Oh, my!/ I married the pig’s daughter/ I married the pigs daughter/ Why? Why? Why?” from Song.
Political – "I am a great American/ I am almost nationalistic about it!/ I love America like a madness!/ But I am afraid to return to America/ I’m even afraid to go into the American Express-“ from The American Way.
Humorous – “And When the mayor comes to get my vote tell him/ When are you going to stop people killing whales!/ And when the milkman comes leave him a note in the bottle/ Penguin dust, bring me penguin dust, I want penguin dust” from Marriage.
Philosophical – “What with everybody so bomb conscious it is as though it has fallen in a way, mentally that is, because now they got these shelters and they're always gonna have them and that means that all the babies to come will have to ask what the shelters are, and the parents will have to explain to them, and not many parents can explain death, so the poor kids will have to consult their deaths when everything about them is life.” From Standing on a Street Corner: A Little Play
Groups or Movements:
Beat Generation
The Beat Generation came into being during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. They were a group of poets, writers, musicians and artists who rejected the American dream and way of life and embraced art, sexuality and Eastern religion, all while experimenting with various drugs. If the movement had a primary goal, it was to show the mainstream that it is alright to express ones own beliefs and ideas, even and especially if they go against the status quo. This ideal was frequently applied to feelings towards the conflict in Vietnam, which was the prevailing political topic of the day.
While his works were not as free-spirited as Kerouac, nor were they as intellectual as Ginsberg, Corso’s works, none the less, struck a chord with the beat generation. His writings were romantic, satirical, intelligent, and political all at once, and were a perfect fit for a movement whose primary goal was to show that the status quo was not a goal to strive for, but a mold to break out of. The following lines from his poem “Bomb,” a love-poem written to atomic weapons structured in the shape of a mushroom was does well to illustrate this point: “Poor little Bomb that'll never be/ an Eskimo song I love thee/ I want to put a lollipop/ in thy furcal mouth/ A wig of Goldilocks on thy baldy bean/ and have you skip with me Hansel and Gretel/ along the Hollywoodian screen/ O Bomb in which all lovely things/ moral and physical anxiously participate/ O fairylike plucked from the/ grandest universe tree/ O piece of heaven which gives/ both mountain and anthill a sun.”
Similar Artist:
Jack Kerouac
As a fellow member of the Beat Generation, Kerouac was inspired and influenced by many of the same ideas and events as Corso. They were both intrigued by the romantic writers that came before them and were heavily influenced by the free-spirited ideas of their contemporaries. Perhaps the most common shared influence which distinguished them from their fellow Beatniks was their love of travel. It was during his travels around Europe, with right-hand-man, Alan Ginsberg, that Corso honed his skills and style as a writer. For Kerouac, it was the great American road that called to him, which he traveled extensively with his iconic compatriot, Neil Cassidy. These similar life experiences, coupled with their membership in virtually the same social and literary circles, shows up in very notable ways in both of their works.
Allen Ginsberg
Ginsberg found and delivered Corso, the missing link, to a trio of writers who became the fathers of the beat Generation, consisting himself, Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. Ginsberg recognized Corso’s highly intelligent and romantic style as being similar to that of his own and immediately saw his potential. It is so rare that people are able to hand-pick those who will become their contemporaries, but Ginsberg did just that. Additionally, the two were enormous influences on each other, as they spend the better part of 16 months living and writing together in Europe.
Follower:
Diane Di Prima
Diane was considered a member of the second wave of beat poets. Her career in writing started in the later end of the 1960's, and although she was writing in the style of the beat generation, she was several years behind the movements founders, such as Corso. She did, however continue to write in the same style and became one of the poets to bridge the gap between the beat and hippie movement. As an homage to Corso, Ginsberg, Burroughs and those others who came before her, she wrote the difinitive homage to the beat generation in her book, Memoirs of a Beatnik.
Influenced By:
T.S. Elliot
Elliot was considered by many of the Beat to be a strong influence and predecessor. His works frequently dealt with topics that were of great interest to the beats, such as the utopian/distopian idea of an American police state and the threat of nuclear annihilation (a topic that showed up repeatedly in Corso’s writing). Also, much like Elliot, Corso saw his own writing as being a way to escape the self and an opportunity to shy away from objectivity and venture into the absurd. We can see Corso’s love of Elliot’s work most directly in one of his most notable poems, "Marriage," was a comedic parody of Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”
Percy Shelley
One of the primary influences on the Beatniks writers was romantic writing. Among others, the generation placed the bohemian ideas of beauty, love and truth on a very high pedestal. Shelly, one of the most prolific and profound of the romantic writers was worshiped as a hero by Corso, even though he was seen as being too "flowery" for some. He even went so far as to leave in his last will and testament that he wanted to be buried at the foot of Shelly’s grave, located in a cemetery in Rome. His final wish was acquiesced.
Sites Consulted:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Corso
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/corso/bomb.htm
http://www.beatmuseum.org/corso/GregoryCorso.html
http://www.litkicks.com/Texts/Bomb.html
http://www.villagevoice.com/2001-01-23/books/gregory-corso-1930-2001/
Years Active: 1955-1989. Although Gregory Corso continued to write periodically until the time of his death, he published his last major work in 1989.
Genre: Beat Poetry
Biography
Gregory Corso was born Nunzio Corso, in New York City’s Greenwich Village, to parents Sam and Michelina Corso. It wasn’t until the time of his confirmation that he assumed the name Gregory Corso. Only one month after his birth, Michelina abandoned Gregory, leaving him in his father’s care who soon after placed him into foster care. At the young age of 13, Gregory was living on the streets of New York City where he slept in subways and on rooftops and would run errands for local merchants in exchange for food. Before he had turned 17, Gregory had already served three stints jail, one of which was served in the Clinton Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in New York state. While in Clinton, he spent his time reading and studying extensively began writing poetry.
After leaving Clinton, he returned to New York City, where he lived and was supported as an “artist-in-residence” at the Pony Stable, an openly lesbian bar in Greenwich Village. It was there that he met Allen Ginsberg, who took an immediate liking to Corso and introduced him to other beat poets, including Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. In 1957, Corso, along with Ginsberg and Burroughs moved to Paris and lived in a hostel known for housing musicians artists and writers, that later became known as the Beat Hotel. During his time there, he wrote one of his greatest collections of poems, Bombs and Marriage, before returning to New York City towards the end of 1958.
When the trio of writers returned home, they were surprised to find that a powerful social movement had sprung up in their wake, known commonly as the Beatnik movement. Unlike many of his Beatnik contemporaries, Corso was not pleased at having achieved a certain level of celebrity within the movement, being dubbed “The Last Beat” and always shyed away from public appearances. After Ginsberg’s death, Corso returned over seas where retraced his own footsteps from their original European trip.
While in Paris, Corso gave his permission for filmmaker Gustave Reiningerto to do a documentary on his life. In an unusual turn of events, Reiningerto managed to locate Corso’s mother, who he thought had died in Italy She was living in Trenton, New Jersey. During their on camera reunion, Gregory discovered that his mother, who his father had denounced as a whore and told him had moved back to Italy, only abandoned him because she was the victim of vicious abuse at the hand of his father. Her intention was to provide him a better life by leaving him in the hands of the Catholic Charities. Despite attempting to find him later in life, his father had ensured that she never was able to. The two formed a strong bond until he succumbed to prostate cancer on January 17, 2001, and died.
Works Consulted:
1955: The Vestal Lady and Other Poems
1955: This Hung-Up Age
1958: Gasoline
1958: Bomb
1960: The Happy Birthday of Death
1960: Minutes to Go (In collaboration with Sinclair Beiles, William S. Burroughs, and Brion Gysin.)
1961: The American Express
1962: Long Live Man
1965: There is Yet Time to Run Back through Life and Expiate All That's been Sadly Done
1970: Elegiac Feelings American
1972: The Night Last Night was at its Nightest
1974: Earth Egg
1979: Writings from OX
1981: Herald of the Autochthonic Spirit
1989: Mind Field
1989: Mindfield: New and Selected Poems
Moods:
Intense – “Being dead didn’t mean much/I still felt the pain where the bullet went through” from In the Morgue: a dream.
Whimsical – “Oh, dear! Oh, me! Oh, my!/ I married the pig’s daughter/ I married the pigs daughter/ Why? Why? Why?” from Song.
Political – "I am a great American/ I am almost nationalistic about it!/ I love America like a madness!/ But I am afraid to return to America/ I’m even afraid to go into the American Express-“ from The American Way.
Humorous – “And When the mayor comes to get my vote tell him/ When are you going to stop people killing whales!/ And when the milkman comes leave him a note in the bottle/ Penguin dust, bring me penguin dust, I want penguin dust” from Marriage.
Philosophical – “What with everybody so bomb conscious it is as though it has fallen in a way, mentally that is, because now they got these shelters and they're always gonna have them and that means that all the babies to come will have to ask what the shelters are, and the parents will have to explain to them, and not many parents can explain death, so the poor kids will have to consult their deaths when everything about them is life.” From Standing on a Street Corner: A Little Play
Groups or Movements:
Beat Generation
The Beat Generation came into being during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. They were a group of poets, writers, musicians and artists who rejected the American dream and way of life and embraced art, sexuality and Eastern religion, all while experimenting with various drugs. If the movement had a primary goal, it was to show the mainstream that it is alright to express ones own beliefs and ideas, even and especially if they go against the status quo. This ideal was frequently applied to feelings towards the conflict in Vietnam, which was the prevailing political topic of the day.
While his works were not as free-spirited as Kerouac, nor were they as intellectual as Ginsberg, Corso’s works, none the less, struck a chord with the beat generation. His writings were romantic, satirical, intelligent, and political all at once, and were a perfect fit for a movement whose primary goal was to show that the status quo was not a goal to strive for, but a mold to break out of. The following lines from his poem “Bomb,” a love-poem written to atomic weapons structured in the shape of a mushroom was does well to illustrate this point: “Poor little Bomb that'll never be/ an Eskimo song I love thee/ I want to put a lollipop/ in thy furcal mouth/ A wig of Goldilocks on thy baldy bean/ and have you skip with me Hansel and Gretel/ along the Hollywoodian screen/ O Bomb in which all lovely things/ moral and physical anxiously participate/ O fairylike plucked from the/ grandest universe tree/ O piece of heaven which gives/ both mountain and anthill a sun.”
Similar Artist:
Jack Kerouac
As a fellow member of the Beat Generation, Kerouac was inspired and influenced by many of the same ideas and events as Corso. They were both intrigued by the romantic writers that came before them and were heavily influenced by the free-spirited ideas of their contemporaries. Perhaps the most common shared influence which distinguished them from their fellow Beatniks was their love of travel. It was during his travels around Europe, with right-hand-man, Alan Ginsberg, that Corso honed his skills and style as a writer. For Kerouac, it was the great American road that called to him, which he traveled extensively with his iconic compatriot, Neil Cassidy. These similar life experiences, coupled with their membership in virtually the same social and literary circles, shows up in very notable ways in both of their works.
Allen Ginsberg
Ginsberg found and delivered Corso, the missing link, to a trio of writers who became the fathers of the beat Generation, consisting himself, Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. Ginsberg recognized Corso’s highly intelligent and romantic style as being similar to that of his own and immediately saw his potential. It is so rare that people are able to hand-pick those who will become their contemporaries, but Ginsberg did just that. Additionally, the two were enormous influences on each other, as they spend the better part of 16 months living and writing together in Europe.
Follower:
Diane Di Prima
Diane was considered a member of the second wave of beat poets. Her career in writing started in the later end of the 1960's, and although she was writing in the style of the beat generation, she was several years behind the movements founders, such as Corso. She did, however continue to write in the same style and became one of the poets to bridge the gap between the beat and hippie movement. As an homage to Corso, Ginsberg, Burroughs and those others who came before her, she wrote the difinitive homage to the beat generation in her book, Memoirs of a Beatnik.
Influenced By:
T.S. Elliot
Elliot was considered by many of the Beat to be a strong influence and predecessor. His works frequently dealt with topics that were of great interest to the beats, such as the utopian/distopian idea of an American police state and the threat of nuclear annihilation (a topic that showed up repeatedly in Corso’s writing). Also, much like Elliot, Corso saw his own writing as being a way to escape the self and an opportunity to shy away from objectivity and venture into the absurd. We can see Corso’s love of Elliot’s work most directly in one of his most notable poems, "Marriage," was a comedic parody of Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”
Percy Shelley
One of the primary influences on the Beatniks writers was romantic writing. Among others, the generation placed the bohemian ideas of beauty, love and truth on a very high pedestal. Shelly, one of the most prolific and profound of the romantic writers was worshiped as a hero by Corso, even though he was seen as being too "flowery" for some. He even went so far as to leave in his last will and testament that he wanted to be buried at the foot of Shelly’s grave, located in a cemetery in Rome. His final wish was acquiesced.
Sites Consulted:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Corso
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/corso/bomb.htm
http://www.beatmuseum.org/corso/GregoryCorso.html
http://www.litkicks.com/Texts/Bomb.html
http://www.villagevoice.com/2001-01-23/books/gregory-corso-1930-2001/
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