Wednesday, April 8, 2009

A Souls "Howl"

I really really liked this poem. It is a rant, it is an angry yell, a howl of a tired man's mind. A huge pool of pure thoughts and feelings forged by his personal experiences. A spontaneous blend of words meant to be read in one breath after another. The fluid rhythm Ginsberg creates is what attracted me most about it, it seems endless and snowballing up to possibly reach a universally conscious thought no one would ever say out loud! And at the time this was created, a poem of this format was unheard of, and the blatant advantage of freedom of expression was shocking. We read about his life experiences, his thoughts about his era, his friends, his mocking of the world, his lament over life's hurdles. Truly, a man who definitely had a lot to say over his surroundings... But don't we all? 
We all think certain things, sometimes they are best kept unsaid, sometimes they could be said but must be worded carefully... Life ain't perfect...
 Anything you have always found your self questioning? For instance, just off the top of my head, let flow... I have always had a problem with the... concept of college, high school, or the educational system entirely. All I contemplate is why so long? We spend half of our days, and all week in school, for a third of our average life span, and then spent more than half of what remains working and scraping to enjoy life with a tired body and mind. Then we are expected to pay someone to include us into their "exceptional" league? Where we can only get a free waive if you happened to be uniquely gifted creatively or intellectually, or worked twice as hard as any other, "spending" time away from enjoying life. They tell us they need more doctors, more nurses, if that's what you want, why are you making it harder for me? Why make my tired parents take up another job?.. Shoved with a diverse group of peers all with different opinions and different morals/ ideals, different raising, different backgrounds, different experiences, and we are expected to all get along bump-free? To have the leader charge us into debt to establish a life of our own? A career we love, a career we fantasized about and forced to discard at the sight of its digits. Have "qualified" elitist's judge and question our thoughts and opinions, slowly beating our courage and mind to stale porridge. To be constantly looked down upon, always a student, always the grasshopper, always waiting to be given direction, to be condemned, to be verbally abused and made examples of. Expected and forged to listen, respect and understand from grade 1, to follow orders and schedule, routine... routine, to march in line, side by side,quietly, and take a seat... only listened to after we reach our breaking point... who knows what that's like...
  Any thoughts...?