Alan Ginsberg

Howling in Harvard Square

By: Charles Giuliano - Sep 12, 2015

Alan Ginsberg

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked

In Howl he said
Lunch in Harvard Square
With iconic poet
Ginsberg about to visit
Great Barrier Reef
Wearing two watches
One for each wrist
Keeping track of time
Both Cambridge
And over there
In two places
At the same time
Always one step ahead
In town for an exhibition
I bought his Neal Cassady
In front of movie marquee
The Wild Ones
Early Brando film
Dean Moriarty in
On the Road
Richly inscribed on the print
Photographing his friends
Immortals he said
While still living
Beat Generation
Inspired us all
Rebel hipsters
Talk of Jack, Corso, Peter, Burroughs
Charles Olson from Gloucester
Best minds gone mad
Post war America
Eisenhower years
Growing up absurd
In suburbia
Loving James Dean and Elvis
Organized a project
Celebrating
Kerouac Festival in Lowell
Planned to borrow his work
From Tibor de Nagy Gallery
And Polaroid portraits
By Elsa Dorfman
Whose studio we visited
Walking from Harvard Square
He died suddenly
Just before the exhibition
Such sweet shows
Boston and Lowell
With curator Linda Poras
Loans cancelled
Suddenly too valuable
So Elsa said
Hung my Cassady
That was it
For Alan
A consummate hipster
Who changed everything