A few days ago was the birthday of Poet Allen Ginsberg. Vance and I weren’t big poetry guys back then—unless he’s holding out on me—and I didn’t really even hear about the beat poets like Ginsberg or Ferlinghetti, until I was in the Army. Nonetheless, Ginsberg’s famous poem, “Howl,” has a beginning that reminds me of us, of me and Vance and all of our friends… most of our friends. But, then, I guess every generation feels the same way.
"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, angel-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night…"In retrospect, maybe all we were was a couple of typical 1970s teenaged kids. Of course, whose to say what would have happened if our minds hadn’t been destroyed by madness…..
