Where can I find beatnik poems online?
The Beat poets were a fairly clearly defined group of younger American writers who came to prominence in the years shortly after WWII:- some major names in the group were Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Lawrence Ferlinghetti. One of the most interesting beat poems to perform is Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s ‘Underwear’ (in fact, Lawrence Ferlinghetti nearly always writes very performable poetry). If you want something a little more challenging (though still more accessible than most other American verse of the period) Allen Ginsberg’s Sunflower Sutra can be unforgettable in the hands of a good interpreter. ‘Beatnik Poetry’ was really just an insulting way to talk about ‘Beat Poetry’. The Beats were an early Pop movement, and Well Educated and Middle Class people thought the idea of sharing poetry with working class audiences was stupid and distasteful. If you felt really daring, you could choose a prose excerpt from either Kerouac or Burroughs: the visceral and direct nat
