Allen Ginsberg’s American Sentences
Thursday June 7, 2007
Allen Ginsberg was a full believer in condense, condense, condense.... Still, he never went for the haiku. Bob Holman offers an introduction to Ginsberg’s solutions to this conundrum, which first appear in his book Cosmopolitan Greetings – The American Sentences: One sentence, 17 syllables, end of story.
Comments
and, heavens know that i’d most likely not be writing poetry today if i’d not discovered the haiku form.
i know there’s such a thing as short fragment poetry, and that modern poetry in motion is the most free poetry writing has ever been. i think i needed the validation an established form like the haiku offers (that and the fact that my thinking often follows patterns from eastern civilisations), though, in combination with my “condensed” life, to jump start me into writing (again).
now, i use the form, but i don’t necessarily stick to the letter of the haiku law in practice
just thought i’d comment on the benefits of the haiku.
thanks,
gregory 061307