As much as I would like to scare everyone off by saying this was a metrical form meetup - aka the iambic beat goes on - it's not.
It was a time of seemingly endless war, racial unrest and police brutality ... no not 2014 - think free love before aids, drugs before the drug war, protest before protest became a way to sell more stuff - yes we are talking about the mythical beat generation - on the road with jack kerouac, allen ginsberg's howl, city lights bookstore in san francisco with lawrence ferlinghetti -
"The Beat Generation may be most famous for Jack Kerouac (On the Road), Allen Ginsberg (Howl), and William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch), but in fact it claims an amazing number of inspired writers. Delve into our complete selection of fine books by and about the Beats and their accomplices —among them, Neal Cassady, Herbert Huncke, Gregory Corso, Diane di Prima, Ted Joans, John Clellon Holmes, Anne Waldman, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure, Gary Snyder, Robert Duncan, Philip Lamantia, Bob Kaufman, Bob Creeley, Kenneth Rexroth. " From the City Lights Bookstore site
Let's discuss the Beats and see what we can glean from them to add to our own work -
So if you have free time explore the Beat Generation before the next meetup and see what new beat like creation you can create this week.
Where to start? Here are a few ideas -
Listen to Howl while cleaning the house this week - maybe use headphones in case of children... or listen to him teach the literary history of the beats?
Find out why we still listen to Lawrence Ferlinghetti muse about underwear more than 50 years later
Web Search Gary Snyder
"Snyder, who is seventy-eight, has written nineteen books of poems and essays that are engaged with watersheds, geology, logging, backpacking, ethno-poetics, Native American oral storytelling, communal living, sex, coyotes, bears, Tibetan deities, Chinese landscape painting, Japanese Noh drama, and the intimacies of family life. His reach extends far beyond the usual small audience for poetry; “Turtle Island,” a collection of poems that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1975, has sold a hundred thousand copies."
In any case, beat or not, bring in some poetry to share and discuss.
Hope to see you there