In honor of the film, Howl, about the famed poem of beat poet Allen Ginsberg, officially hitting big screens and select theaters nationwide on September 24.
I’ve seen the greatest imbalanced brains
Of my comatose generation
Be snookered and snaphooeyed
Into obeying – and believing – the barriers and barristers
Of formal education.
I’ve seen middle-aged schizophrenics
Frustrated by society’s stringent, inconsistent wiring
Be trampled, truncated and compartmentalized
By belittling bozos of commerce and degree
Who market and emit immaterial consumer pollution better known as hot stinky air.
I’ve seen too often the bookish clods
Of academia – snobbishness de facto
Thumb their crinkled university noses
In an outrage of utter disgust
That confuses class with intelligence and honor with buffoonery.
I’ve seen politicians of modest potential
Exploit their dim-witted well-heeled connections
For soulless career advancement
Disguised as selfless gratuity
In the name of ad-liberty and injustice for all.
I’ve seen elephants with upturned trunks
Reverse fields in an act of spineless cunning
To detract attention from unassuming prey
Who embittered by battle, decry and despair
The oppressive sugarcoated weight of their guttural burden.
I’ve seen information-drunk bibliophiles
Overestimate the disproportioned wealth
Of the useless breadth of their Ivy League-schooled knowledge cum applaude
Until their verbose pontifications
Suffocate the simplicity of their custodial spirit.
I’ve seen poets, too, poets of self-proclaimed overindulged genius
Suffer the same effrontery by a wrong choice of language –
A convoluted theme
An undeveloped smattering of word trickery,
Conceptual deceit…
It’s a shame they blame illiteracy for the demise of man
When in fact it’s a matter of poor taste and bad breath.
God save the Phi Beta Kapped, gowned and gagged queen emeritus
From vomiting on the headmaster’s polished loafers.
Hand her a Ph.D. in ad nauseam.
Her advisor slipped on kiwi trimmings and imparted wind.