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Allen Ginsberg on Poetry

By Mark McGuinness

Allen Ginsberg pops up in the Dylan documentary No Direction Home and gives this impromptu definition of poetry:

Poetry is words that are empowered to make your hair stand on end, that you recognise instantly as being some form of subjective truth that has an objective reality to it, because somebody’s realised it.

Then you call it poetry later.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Ginsberg, Poetry

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Comments

  1. Sheryl says

    18 July, 2009 at 10:27 am

    I like that definition. Mind if I permanently borrow it? I love to collect quotes. ~She aka Belle

    • Mark McGuinness says

      18 July, 2009 at 10:34 am

      Be my guest! (Or rather Ginsberg’s.) Thanks for stopping by Sheryl.

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