America, by Allen Ginsberg

[poetxyz]

One of my faves too. Not too bad, but you did mess up a few too many lines. Poetry is very fragile and specific.

[1023esquimaltrd]

@poetxyz Poetry is entirley subjective, you are fragile and specific, those are great traits.

[DevinGoesBARKx31]

MMMM This is horrible interpretation.

[Xesumaidem]

This man took the time to learn a poem and read it b/c he likes it. Why dislike someone for that? At least he has the courage to do so.

This man is obviously a reader. Don't hate readers. Fascists generally hate readers. America needs more readers, and the world over for that matter...

[slllector]

I like it. Ignore the haters.

[SchlafAroundTheBend]

There's nothing wrong in acting a poem, especially since he's in front of a camera..he would have been fake had he tried to read it like Ginsberg, he did a personal reading and that can hardly be fake. Plus, I believe that this poem has such a colloquial tone that it's hard not to "act" as if you were talking to or arguing with someone. I think he got the beat of it towards the end, it was fun, I enjoyed it

[xBabydicKx]

you fucking suck. you make ginsberg look straight.

[theoldbeagle7]

very good job kid.

[mockingbird4437]

This is bullshit!

OKAY: You know what the real poetry is.....BUT: You're just so fake!!!!

Yark...yark yark beurk beurk..!!!

[1023esquimaltrd]

@mockingbird4437

How would you have done it less fake? I don't mean that sarcastically, what do you mean by fake, do you think I don't realy enjoy this poem? Is it that I don't understand his interpretation of "America"? Please, I enjoy this insight, but I just don't get it, How do you read a poem fake? There is no CGI involved, I heard a poem, I smoked a joint, had a whiskey and soda, then I read it into a webcam, what here was fake?

[rocketqueenz]

@mockingbird4437 Not fake, I think he just needs to update his version of America....2011 style.

[MsCaptainbastard]

Please don't do this again,

This poem doesn't need your 'acting' skills

[1023esquimaltrd]

@MsCaptainbastard thank you for noticing what an actor I am. I tried to get Ginsberg to read it, but he died. Your right, I was acting like I was reciting poetry, you have a very keen sense of deduction. have you ever thought of opening a detective agency? You are clearly an intellectual of "inconceivable" proportion. if you hadn't told me not to, I may have just kept recording this one same poem over, and over again. I don't think I will do it a second time. Thanks,

[MsCaptainbastard]

Please don't do this again,

the poem is good, it doesn't need your 'acting' skills

[ItsBeatle]

Good job.

[spooninspoon]

I fucking love it... I woulda done this years ago just don't have a cam-corder but its great. I thought I was the only person who gets and feels Ginsburg and JohnJack and is in his mid

[1023esquimaltrd]

where do you live? I come across camcorders once in a while....... every ginsberg fan should have one.

[spooninspoon]

Buffalo, NY...

[spooninspoon]

dude I love it !!! I do!. just do it how you! would do it... It just sounds rehearsed. Fuck the jazz music... You got it down man. you don't need that extra stuff. Yet if thats your style forgive me.

[1023esquimaltrd]

I like to speak to a rythm. It aint rehersed though, this was the third or fourth time I had even heard this poem. i just stuck the one ipod headphone in and recited it, as Allen whispered into my ear.

Thats why my heads turned to the side. I like reading poems RIGHT after I hear them.... while that sense of awe is still roaring in my gut....... how was I to know this one would just keep roaring at us.....y'know? Thanks for your comment, it made me feel less alone. check out my puppet read'ns

[paolobax]

dude, great reading, yet IMHO you should work more on your pauses and gestures: somewhat too shakespearean, so to say, despite the jazzy background

ginsberg's audio recording should be a good start to get the proper rythm.

best of luck for your future

[zerocoolct]

Are you interested in Nick Cave, Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen. I think you'd like the Sharon Olds poem 'I go back to May 1937' or 'the changling' by Charlotte Mew.

It would be great if you could read your own stuff on here. I read regularly my poems at poetry nights in Liverpool England where I live.

[zerocoolct]

dude i'm just giving a constructive critique of your reading. dont get all upset about it. And calling people trolls is a little dumb. dont you think it betrays your obvious intelligence.

[1023esquimaltrd]

Dude..... you didn't critique my reading at all, you critiqued my comments. If calling a person a troll, establishes an intellligence level for you, thats fine, we are all free to our own value structure. But i am okay betraying the "obvious intelligence" .

This is the only place in the world where i dont have to betray my inner intelligence, i can be honest, and sweet and rough and warm and cold. I call a spade a spade,you should too. If were not honest, we betray eachothers intelligence.

[stephaniebarney]

You skipped some stanzas

[1023esquimaltrd]

I got this from a live Ginsberg reading. I don't know why he chose to omit them, but it's the one reading i came to favor. When I hear the "full" version, It sounds off to me. I geusse it comes down to the subjectivity of poetry, and the unknown intentions of the writer. but Thank-you for your insightful ( and slightly troll like) criticism.

[stephaniebarney]

how is it troll like? I was just letting you know you skipped some stanza. I wrote a 5 page paper about this poem i know it by heart. It annoys me when people say it wrong

[1023esquimaltrd]

"Do not feed the trolls" and its abbreviation DNFTT In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room or blog, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response[1] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.[2]

What do you do, watch all the versions of America, and then dump your troll poo on peoples doorsteps.

[xavstack]

you're just reciting. you should play against your good looks

[lkasjfh]

your so shit.

[1023esquimaltrd]

@lkasjfh NAILED IT!!!

[neonpulse]

Good emphasis and expressions but you're too fast!

[zerocoolct]

This man is acting the poem. When ginsberg read it ginsberg really felt it. Thats the difference. He has to read the poem off cam and try to understand what its about, that way he'll come across as less of a cheap act or mimic

anyway he misses out a number of lines and words.

good effort though.

[clokverkorange]

I was thinking the same thing. You have to understand what you're reading and why it was written to really feel it, and it comes across in a reading.

[HufflepuffTheGreat]

@zerocoolct Yeah. In order to read poetry well one has to in some ways be a poet. You have to connect with what you're saying, rather than just relying on backgroud music, pot, and alcohol to do the trick. You've gotta feel something stabbing you when you read this shit, not just act it out in beatnik clothing and expect people to feel moved.

[sean57]

hey man, watched your rendition, keep it up . start talkin to people like this, suck in the remaining molecules that are still floating around from these guys. then you should go on some casting calls, stick with it. you got it, and your young...like john dillinger said" the thompson machine gun is an insturment!! learn to play it!"

[wdowd3303]

Nice, I dig it.

[caxcallatik]

one of the best readings--if not the best readings--of this poem.

[leozingy]

Great!