Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems

by Allen Ginsberg

I’m with you in Rockland where the faculties of the skull no longer admit the worms of the senses

I’m with you in Rockland in my dreams you walk dripping from a sea-journey on the highway across America in tears to the door of my cottage in the Western night

Holy Peter holy Allen holy Solomon holy Lucien holy Kerouac holy Huncke holy Burroughs holy Cassady holy the unknown buggered and suffering beggars holy the hideous human angels!

Jack Kerouac, new Buddha of American prose, who spit forth intelligence into eleven books written in half the number of years (1951–1956) – On the Road, Visions of Neal, Dr Sax, Springtime Mary, The Subterraneans, San Francisco Blues, Some of the Dharma, Book of Dreams, Wake Up, Mexico City Blues, and Visions of Gerard – creating a spontaneous bop prosody and original classic literature. Several phrases and the title of Howl are taken from him. William Seward Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch, an endless novel which will drive everybody mad.