I am a child of the 60’s not the 50’s, but I found myself immersed in the Beat Generation of Writer’s during the 80’s. I loved Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg and read everything I could find about them and their work.
Recently I received a prompt for writing like the Beat Generation. So, I tried a poem, Allen Ginsberg style and came up with this little piece that I would like to share. Feel free to comment, criticize, and/or share some Beat! 🙂
Global Warming, by D. B. Mauldin
Earth as we know it is changing Volcanoes spewing Rain flooding
Tornadoes twirling bringing destruction yes bringing destruction
Lightning flashes Snow falling Freezing temperatures Ice melts
Ocean trashing Fish dying Animals dying Women getting liposuction
Lakes and Rivers turning inside out vomiting up its trash and treasures
Wars and wars violence all over the Earth some public some personal
Earthquakes upon earthquakes more destruction more dying
And all the while Earth keeps turning and people load up with arsenal
Will we ever learn will we ever care will we ever understand
Creator put us here to take care of the land animals each other
We are to live in joy and love and love and love help and care
Show empathy show sympathy not abuse then run for cover
We became a society of give me give me take this take that
I want I want We have denied and destroyed our very life
Never understanding the part we played the things we destroyed
We dined we danced like there was no tomorrow and ended in strife
We have no one to blame but ourselves we have left everything hanging
First procrastinating then denying then opening our eyes our minds
Our hearts but is it too late Earth as we know it is changing changing
As we keep fracking drilling killing tighter and tighter our yoke binds.
I find it engaging stream of consciousness writing that goes on and on and on Gertrude Stein would be proud I know it but I counted five punctuation marks two commas an apostrophe a question mark and a period I do not mind the period and maybe the apostrophe oh I do not mind the others I am still applauding cheering you on but without them or maybe with just the period I would applaud and give you a standing ovation and so would Stein
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Thanks for the feedback. I will take out some of the punctuation. You really think Gertrude Stein would be proud? Wow! That’s such a good feeling. Thank you for the boost in self-confidence. 🙂
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FANTASTIC! Engaging and poingnant, flows well, … nicely done.
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Thank you. I’ve been a long-time admirer of the ‘Beat Generation’ and want to try my hand at more once everything settles down and gets back to normal.
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I find this piece unique. It could easily be set to music, very inspiring for a child of the 70’s and an 80’s music lover.
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Thank you. I intend to delve deeper into the ‘Beat Generation’ style during 2013. 🙂
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