Reading Ginsberg for the first time through this small selection might not have been the best idea. While the variety it offers might be seen as a good intro, the selection feels extremely random and directionless.

The first poem featured is written by Ginsberg, Kerouac, and Cassady. It feels like it was written for fun before anything else. I wasn’t wowed, but I also didn’t dislike it. It sort of felt like it’s in a similar vein as Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons.

The following 4 poems unfortunately ended up being terrible. They felt dated and flat when they weren’t completely artless. While some passages were actually good, the rest ruined their effect. The titular poem gave me genuine rage due to how unintelligible and horrendous it was — it took all my power not to rip the book in my fury.

An intelligible but equally flat  poem follows them, which almost works as a barrier between the bad poems and the ones that are actually good.

The following 7 poems made me consider the possibility of giving Ginsberg another shot. They’re at times salacious, at times pornographic, which must have shocked the conservative 80s American society. Their subversive nature added to their allure for me.

Out of these 7 poems, the one that felt the most Beat was Mind Breaths, which reminded me of Kerouac’s prose.

Without the 4 aforementioned poems, this would have gotten a 5/5 from me. I can’t help but think Ginsberg must have written much better ones to include here instead. As it is, I don’t really see what made Ginsberg such a revolutionary figure for poetry, though the latter poems at least establish him as a writer of merit for me.