Along the lines of Kerouac...

I am in the middle of a little book right now. It's a collection of poems by Allen Ginsburg my deer friend Josh gifted to me. Mr. Kerouac is one of the lucky souls to have it dedicated to. I read most of it on the train coming back from New York the other night and it made me hate that city even more.

Edit 7:16 PM:

I just finished reading "Howl and Other Poems" seconds ago. Maybe I was more excited to write my response to it rather than soak up the last few lines of genius versing. The centerpiece of this book is a poem called "Howl," a three part 20 page beastly insight to the virtue of man. Ginsburg's general attitude of discontent and malice towards humankind is insane, but while I was reading it, I was on the Metro-North heading back to New Haven on a late night train and could visibly see what it is that he calls insane.

The rest of his poems are political and satirical, jabbing at the economic prosperity of the 1950's amongst the development of the atom bomb all the way through Red Scare issues and Mc Carthyism. Rarely do I read any form of a classic and relate it to the world today but Ginsburg seemed to have some sort of foresight into the future.

Traveler types should read this. Political types should read this. Lonely and downtrodden types too.

-mitchell