This page contains writing from the Beat poetry section of my high school American Lit class. The first 9 poems were assignments where we were charged with writing beat-style pieces inspired by pieces we read in class. The last two are complete originals, written during the "Beat Coffeehouse day" where we all shared our poetry, drank coffee, and had a blast. I have, as best as I could, credited the inspirations for each piece. Titles o songs that I incorporated are in quotes, titles of poems or prose are not.
Techniques for Life (Beat #1)
Inspired by Technique for Modern Prose by Jack Kerouac
submissive to everything, open, listening
never say no
identities not labels
theirs not yours
…yours too
only you can know
only they can know
know yourself
ask everyone
listen, don’t project
live life
don’t judge
be fake
recognize fakeness and kill it
be real
see reality and embrace it
no day but today
I live each moment as my last
words to live by
don’t think, say
think about what you say
censor not
just don’t harm
fragile
words are worse than sticks and stones
you have to pick those up
words just explode
censor not your truth
only,
tread carefully on the hearts of others
hearts are sensitive
we learn that at a young age
we learn that feeling
that sensation
of the heart cutting itself open
but we go through the world oblivious
not really seeing our actions
making hearts bleed
hurt so much they burst
raw emotions flooding through a whole body
we don’t see the floodgates open
but we see the people drown
so overwhelmed by their own hurt
they give in
lose themselves in the fog
then, when they’re lost in the fog
that’s when we see them,
that’s when we try to help…
but it’s too late
we already made their heart burst
…
Today (Beat #2)
Inspired by/Patterned after an unknown beat writing
Today is Tuesday, May 13, 2008. My life is beginning again, like it does everyday. New things I learn mean new directions, goals, and methods for life. Why be constrained by yesterday. Tomorrow, again I will learn e things and change again.
But the beauty of today is that it was preceded by yesterday, and all the yesterdays of my life, and those who came before me. Although today will change my point of view, it won’t do so completely, because all the yesterdays have already informed who I am and what I do.
Yes, each day, life begins again, but that life is not independent. I already know that theatre is life and therapy, but today I may modify that belief, but it probably won’t change completely overnight. And so we beat on, forging ahead to some unforeseeably, unknowable landing on the staircase of life, taking in their time all the corners life throws at us. American Haiku (Beat #3)
Inspired by American Haiku by Jack Kerouac
marquees light up quick
stage doors open and close
Broadway’s on it’s way
tears flow free and hard
mind expands, the world makes sense
where was I hiding?
rainbows everywhere
friends coming home again for now
friendship will save us
meaning discovered
our discussions are lively
uncovering life
psychedelic eyes
magic music tells stories
history through new eyesRoad Trip (Beat #4)
Inspired by/patterned after On the Road By Jack Kerouac, with excerpts from Leavin' on a Jet Plane by John Denver, "Up Above My Head" a camp song, "Toast" another camp song, "La Vie Boheme" by Jonathan Larson, "If You Were Gay" by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, and "The Rooster Song" a third camp song
I Demand (Beat #5)
Inspired by/Patterned after an unknown beat poem
I demand that the world leave me alone
I want to be free
to live
to act
to love
to speak out
I demand autonomy
World, you be yourself
and I’ll be mine
We don’t have to butt in on each other
let’s live
let’s love
let’s speak out
We can coexist
Everyone can be themselves too
living how they want to
Believing what they want to
they’ll live
they’ll love
Life will be good! America (Beat #6)
Inspired by/Patterned after America by Allen Ginsberg
America, I am you, but you are not me
America, I am shaped by you, but you are not shaped by me
America, When did this happen?
When did you forget to be of the people, by the people and for the people?
When did you turn yourself into a hypocrite?
Why can’t I be me without you getting uptight?
I wanna read
I wanna be me
I wanna read about people like me
I wanna talk
Say fuck if I wanna
Say fuck this place that hates me for me
Fuck you with your “all men are created equal”
Maybe Lincoln had it wrong,
maybe a house divided won’t fall
‘cause I sure as hell ain’t standin’ with you right now,
and you’re
still…
still…
still…
standing
You’re still standing?
fuck, I’m still standing
I been standing for seven years
yeah, I’m really horny
ahh, the wonders of testosterone
not only can it make me horny
it can make my friends feel more like men
America,
why do they have to take testosterone to feel like men
why do we fuck with the image of man
why do they have to take drugs to be treated as men
ah fuck, I’m done asking questions
I’m done complaining
it’s time to get up and get going
no, not get up like that, silly
get up as in get up, stand up
‘cause I’m still standing
and I’m gonna stand up for my rights. Broadway (Beat # 7)
Inspired by/Patterned after A Supermarket in California by Walt Whitman, "Why" by Jonathan Larson, and "You Won't Succeed on Broadway" by Eric Idle
What thoughts I have of you tonight, Jonathan Larson, for I took a trip, as I often do, to that place called Broadway
It’s a very special place, filled with very special people. People who need people.
But as I walked through this mass of people needing people, I sensed you, one who needs a piano more than people.
I found you and sang to you, sang with you. And soon our voices blended, and people needed us.
They needed to hear us. When we came out of Bm and A, marquees and Broadway stars lined the streets on our way.
And I said, “Hey, what a way to spend a night. I know that I wan’t this life, alright.”Howl (Beat #8)
Inspired by/Patterned after Howl by Allen Ginsberg
I saw the young minds of my generations numbed by our culture…
Intelligent people with perfect objective reasoning wandering through life without getting passionate about anything
Who, mindless, watch TV and movies, unaffected by their violence
Who have been trained by those same, and other medias, that sex is special, but not sacred
Who have been repressed out of their sensuality
Who cry out, in voices only they can hear, for help, without the communication skills to actually ask for it
Who have lived with war for their whole teenagehood and consider it normal, if not right
Who pass through school with their nose to the grindstone and eyes to the future, never stopping to educate themselves
Who choose friends and enemies based on adherence to social norms or lack thereof
Who therefore, lost too many critical friends and interactions, making their lives a little poorer
Who lived as if today was their last, but neglected to live as if they’d live forever
Who greedily bought and bought from department store and grocery store shelves without thinking of the discrepancy of wealth they are feeding
Who didn’t realize, until it was too late, that the culture they inherited was killing their planet.
Who became sexualized by age 12, but never became sensualized
Who don’t know what it is to truly be comfortable with your own body, and with others
Who fought their elders, without realizing the wisdom of those elders
Who sought their own wisdom, but didn’t know where to look
Who mistook media for wisdom, only because it was what they knew
Who later realized this mistake, but found it was too late to change it
Who were told that school was education and knowledge was wisdom
Who rejected school, but never sought their own education
Who sought wisdom, but never even found knowledge
Who, crazy to live, killed themselves, experiencing joy rides, drugs, and pain
Who, time knows, will howl in anguish one day at their lost opportunities to feelHistory of the Queer in the Western World (Beat #9)
Inspired by/Patterned after History of the Airplane by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Queers throughout history
too many to name
yet they never get named
Alexander the Great, the Bard
Da Vinci and Michelangelo
Whitman, Wilde, Cather, Woolf
Isherwood, Williams, Ginsberg
The list goes on…
and in Ancient Greece the celebrated it
Spartan men fought to impress lovers
older men educated younger
and Sappho wrote of women
and in Rome they revered it
some intending marriage just for children
but loving another of the same sex
but loving another of the same sex
and the church condemned it
it produced no new members
it was not as simple
so, it was not natural
and the Native Americans honored it
trans indians were wise
they made great wives
they were spiritual leaders
they called them two-spirit
and the Brits weren’t so wilde about buggery
Wilde got sent to trial and lost his life
and then there was the 20th Century
Weimar Republic respected the queers
Hitler didn’t
America hated queers
unless they were necessary in other ways
even then, they were only tolerated
and then there was Harry Hay
a red pink, a commie queer
without full comprehension
he still saw a problem
and then the protests started
quiet at first, proper attire, “respectable”
please tolerate us
and then there was Stonewall
“We will not be kept quiet”
the movement gets noisy
and the movement squabbled
who, what, why and how
schisms ruined the effort
and the gay plague reunited it
Actual Reality, ACT UP, FIGHT AIDS
and rights didn’t retake center stage for ten years
then we got the Clintons
we got Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
a compromise, but a step forward
and the resistance was organized
family values preventing families
using one line out of thousands
turning a book of love into a book of hate
and the decisions are split
state by state, laws vary
some protect from discrimination, some don’t
some ban queer adoption, some don’t
some offer civil unions, some don’t
two offer state marriage, 48 don’t
D.C. offers nothing
and the community is changing
out of the nightclub into the house
out as a teen, not just an adult
more freedom, less self-hatred
living life
not quite free of strife
doing and saying what know is best for us
Equality (Beat #10)
my equality, where is it?
why did it disappear when I acknowledged me?
who stole it?
what made them take it?
I want it back
are they scared of me?
how does my equality threaten them?
it’s my inequality that should scare them
that’s what makes me mad
Kerouac once said:
“the only people for me are the mad ones,”
well I’m mad
I’m mad at the world
I’m mad for the world
mad to live in it
mad to love it
mad to run full speed ahead through it
hell, I’m mad because of it
I was once sane as could be
according to me
but the world said
“no, you’re not normal,
you must be crazy”
no madhouse for me
just a virtual one
they built the walls around me
even if I can’t see them
but I feel them
when I hit them
when my body hits them,
my fist hits them
I’m so mad
and just for a moment
I break through
but then they rebuild the wall
a little farther out
but it’s still there
it makes me so madThe Island (Beat #11)
Community,
you know everyone
they take care of you
they nurture you
help you develop you essence
but what if you want to redefine that essence
will they accept that change
wh knows
they say they do
then you wake up
this place is tiny
to constricting
time to get out
but I still want knowledge
too many great minds
I’ll stay and listen to them
but then I’m gone
got to see some other world
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