Jack Kerouac
At night I closed my eyes and saw my bones threading the mud of my grave. — Jack Kerouac, Maggie Cassidy ( Deutsch; F First Edition Thus, January 1, 1974) Originally published January 1, 1959.
Category: The Beat Generation
Allen Ginsberg
Song The weight of the worldis love.Under the burdenof solitude,under the burdenof dissatisfaction the weight,the weight we carryis love. Who can deny?In dreamsit touchesthe body,in thoughtconstructsa miracle,in imaginationanguishestill bornin human—looks out of the heartburning with purity—for the burden of lifeis love, but we carry the weightwearily,and so must restin the arms of loveat last,must rest… Continue reading Allen Ginsberg
Kenneth Rexroth
Give me your mouth.Your grace is as beautiful as sleep.You move against me like a waveThat moves in sleep.Your body spreads across my brainLike a bird filled summer;Not like a body, not like a separate thing.But like a nimbus that hoversOver every other thing in all the world — Kenneth Rexroth, from “ When We… Continue reading Kenneth Rexroth
Jack Kerouac
No man should go through life without once experiencing healthy, even bored solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself and thereby learning his true and hidden strength. Learning for instance, to eat when he’s hungry and sleep when he’s sleepy. — Jack Kerouac, Lonesome Traveller, (Mayflower 1968)
William S. Burroughs
I am trying like Klee, to create something that will have a life of its own, that can put me in real danger, a danger which I willingly take on myself. ― William S. Burroughs, Painting and Guns. (Hanuman Books June 1992)
William S. Burroughs
There is no intensity of love or feeling that does not involve the risk of crippling hurt. It is a duty to take this risk, to love and feel without defense or reserve. ― William S. Burroughs
Jack Kerouac
The beauty of things must be that they end. — Jack Kerouac, Tristessa. (Penguin Books June 1, 1992) Originally published 1960.
Lenore Kandel
Expose yourself!Show me your tattooed spine and star-encrusted tongue!Admit your feral snarl, your bloody jawsconcede your nature and reveal your dreams!each beast contains its god, all gods are dreamsall dreams are true — Lenore Kandel, from “Freak Show and Finale,” Collected Poems of Lenore Kandel. (North
Allen Ginsberg
I I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night — Allen Ginsberg, from “Howl I,” Howl and Other Poems. (City Lights… Continue reading Allen Ginsberg
Jack Spicer
And I think that it is certainly possible that the objective universe can be affected by the poet. I mean, you recall Orpheus made the trees and the stones dance and so forth, and this is something which is in almost all primitive cultures. I think it has some definite basis to it. I’m not… Continue reading Jack Spicer
The Vale of Soul-Making 