IS THIS BULLSHIT OR APPROPRIATE?

[HairOfTheDog]

Just because someone calls something poetry or art doesn't mean it is, not to me anyway. I haven't read any other work from the old gay Jew, but that particular poem is a bunch of garbage.

Well, he's a dead gay Jew now, but he wrote a lot of his best known and most acclaimed works when he was a young gay Jew and voice of the Beat movement.

He's definitely not for everyone. "Please Master" isn't one of my favorites. I like most of his works a lot, though I don't agree with a lot of his stances.

I agree with you that Olio was stupid if he didn't expect to cause controversy and possibly face severe consequences for his choice in this case. I haven't seen any comments or explanation from him.

MS: I don't think the poem is comparable to something featured between the Beaver Hunt and centerfold pages of Penthouse. But, like Larry Flint, Ginsberg was hit with obscenity charges when his best known poem, "Howl" was published. That was when sodomy was illegal in every state. He was ultimately victorious though. The court ruled that "Howl" was not obscene, adding, "Would there be any freedom of press or speech if one must reduce his vocabulary to vapid innocuous euphemisms?"

"Howl" is a lengthy poem. It includes reflections about sex (hetero and homo), drugs, war, etc... It is one of my favorites by Ginsberg.

"America" is also good, and shorter. No sex.