explanation to art

I created a collage from photo image results from Google to represent beats poetry. I brainstormed words and ideas that came to my head when I thought about beats poetry. I thought of all of the poems that I had read, I also thought about the music that I used in part 4. The words that I used to represent beats poetry were peace, revolution, conformity, greed, art, and war.

michael franti and spearhead "yell fire" and beats poetry

The work of art that I chose was a song called Yell Fire by Michael Franti and Spearhead. This song/band reminds me of the beats group in the fact that it deals with many of the same issues that the beats poets write about. Also although there is music behind the writing, the poetry that I read and this song have the same sound and flow. The song Yell Fire talks about American society and the problems with it. It refers to Wall Street criminals, how our culture pops pills and thinks that medicine will always make us better, greed, materialism, and others. In the chorus Franti seems to be saying that by bringing these things to light and saying it is time for a revolution, he wants to enlighten people to the problems in this world that they might not even realize. This song relates to the movement in the fact that both deal with non-conformity and being aware.

Beats Research

The beats poetry emerged in the late 50’s and early 60’s and evolved in New York City and California. San Francisco is where this group/movement became very prevalent. This poetry celebrated non-conformity, spontaneity, and creativity. At the end of WW2 many people were left questioning main stream society, politics, and culture after seeing where it had gotten us. It was somewhat of the pre-hippie crowd and ideas that were expressed in this group. Many poets from this group developed an interest in Buddhism. The problem with labeling poets, is that it generalizes and there are many poets that fit into many different groups. Three major influential poets from this group are Allen Ginsburg, William Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac. The topics that the beat poets wrote about were more controversial issues such as war, abortion, sex, homosexuality, and others.

"Rant, From a Cool Place" Explication

Rant, From a Cool Place by Diane Di Prima

We are in the middle of a bloody, heartrending
revolution Called America, called the Protestant
reformation, called
Western man,
Called individual consciousness, meaning I need a
refrigerator and a car
And milk and meat for the kids so, I can discover
that I don't need a car
Or a refrigerator, or meat, or even milk, just rice
and a place with no wind to sleep next to someone
Two someones keeping warm in the winter
learning to weaveTo pot and to putter, learning to
steal honey from bees,
wearing the bedclothes by day, sleeping under(or
in) them at night; hording bits of glass, colored
stones,
and stringing beads
How long before we come to that blessed
definable stateKnown as buddhahood, primitive
man, people in a landscapetogether like trees, the
second childhood of man

I don't know if I will make it somehow nearer by
saying all thisout loud, for christs sake, that
Stevenson was killed, that
Shastri was killed
both having dined with Marietta Treethe wife of a
higher-up in the CIA
both out of their own countries mysteriously dead,
as how many others

as Marilyn Monroe, wept over in so many tabloids
done in for sleeping with Jack Kennedy - this isn't a poem -
full of cold prosaic fact
thirteen done in the Oswald plot: Jack Ruby's cancer that
disappeared in autopsy
the last of a long line - and they're waiting to get Tim Leary
Bob Dylan
Allen Ginsberg
LeRoi Jones - as, who killed Malcolm X? They give themselves
away
with TV programs on the Third Reich, and I wonder if I'll
live to sit in Peking or Hanoi
see TV programs on LBJ's Reich: our great SS analysed, our money
exposed, the plot to keep Africa
genocide in Southeast Asia now in progress Laos Vietnam
Thailand Cambodia O soft-spoken Sukamo
O great stone Buddhas with sad negroid lips torn down by us by the red
guard all one force
one leveling mad mechanism, grinding it down to earth and
swamp to sea to powder

till Mozart is something a few men can whistle
or play on a homemade flute and we bow to each other
telling old tales half remembered
gathering shells learning again "all beings are from the very beginning Buddhas
or glowing and dying radiation and plague we come to that
final great love illumination
"FROM THE VERY FIRST NOTHING IS."





The speaker of Di Prima’s “Rant, From a Cool Place is someone who is criticizing America and society for the way it conforms to the norm. The speaker refers to Americans and how they are materialistic and think that in life they need possessions when really they don’t. The speakers tone in the poem is serious and critical. The speaker questions him self in the middle of the poem saying that he doesn’t know if he is going to make a different in what he is saying and the points that he is bringing to light. But he decided to continue on after he questions himself and continues to try and get his point across. The speaker then criticizes the government and different modern tragedies and cover-ups such as cover-ups in the CIA and murders such as Malcolm X. He also seems to mention how the government tries to shut up the people who are speaking out against them. The speaker concludes by saying something along the lines that humans need to cleanse themselves and remember where they came from and enjoy the simple things in life. As the title of this poem describes, the way that the poem is written it does very much sounds like a rant about these topics and the speakers frustrations and opinions.

Reflection on Beats Poetry

Beats poetry celebrates non-conformity, spontaneity, and creativity. These poems talk about more modern and topics that are more controversial such as abortion, war, homosexuality, and sex in a more graphic way. Many of the issues that were being brought up because of WW2. The language in these poems are much more informal. In some poems I found the language to be slang such as in Diane Di Prima's poem "Rant". The sound and structure of these poems are different. Many of the poems sound and flow reminded me of rap music. Also there was a lot of repetition and some poems seemed like they had choruses repeating the same stanza in between others. In Diane Di Prima’s poem “Rant” the poem has repeated lines and also the structure of this poem is different in the fact that it seems that the points that she wants to emphasis she puts in all capitol letters, which seems to change the tone of the poem a bit. I also noticed the way the poems were written different in the way they told a story. All of the different poems and poets were different which shows how this group experimented with language and the style and topic of writing. I found it interesting how in Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Death and Fame” he talks about his death and uses quotations to list and show how people reacted to and what people said about him and his death.

poems and poets used

Jack Spicer

For Mac
This Language

Diane Di Prima

Rant, From a Cool Place
Rant
April Fool Birthday Poem for Grandpa

Allen Ginsberg

Death & Fame
Father Death Blues

Gregory Corso

Last Night I Drove a Car
The Mad Yak
I am 25

Ed Sanders

Freedom
Doesnt Matter
Old Squire
Poetry is Back