day 29 - the starry dynamo.

I just finished watching the film Howl. I loved it... mostly because I love hearing poetry read. The whole film isn't really a narrative, or a biography, as much as it is just a visual poem. The most poignant parts for me were not the trial it depicts or the interviews, but the moments where Ginsberg (James Franco) reads portions of the poem. The poem comes alive, and you are able to hear the rhythm and music of it. Parts of the poem are also illustrated by animation based on the illuminated poems Ginsberg published with artist Eric Drooker. The images and sounds evoke feelings and meanings beyond the words themselves. Spoken word is a powerful, powerful thing. The music of language seems to get somehow beyond the words themselves, digging beyond the surface of what is defined.

I hadn't read Howl in a long time, so in some ways it was like experiencing it for the first time. The musical chaos of Ginsberg's howling verse seemed to have power I didn't remember. He wrote, "angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night." And as I heard those words, I felt their yearning for that heavenly connection, I saw the blank eternal workings of night. I saw the wild beauty of the desperation with words like: "battered bleak of brain all drained of brilliance in the drear light." The words batter the listener with their sad, pounding song.

The film just reminded me of why I love poetry so much. How is can evoke desperation, passion, loss, drug-haze, hope, and anguish and all that is beyond words as well. You can listen to Howl in all it's homo-erotic, chaotic, drug-induced, obscene, passionate, creative, desperate glory below or read it here.