Footnote To Howl - A poem by Allen Ginsberg

Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! The world is holy! The soul is holy! The skin is holy! The nose is holy! The tongue and cock and hand and asshole holy! Everything is holy! everybody's holy! everywhere is holy! everyday is in eternity! Everyman's an angel! The bum's as holy as the seraphim! the madman is holy as you my soul are holy! The typewriter is holy the poem is holy the voice is holy the hearers are holy the ecstasy is holy! Holy Peter holy Allen holy Solomon holy Lucien holy Kerouac holy Huncke holy Burroughs holy Cas- sady holy the unknown buggered and suffering beggars holy the hideous human angels! Holy my mother in the insane asylum! Holy the cocks of the grandfathers of Kansas! Holy the groaning saxophone! Holy the bop apocalypse! Holy the jazzbands marijuana hipsters peace & junk & drums! Holy the solitudes of skyscrapers and pavements! Holy the cafeterias filled with the millions! Holy the mysterious rivers of tears under the streets! Holy the lone juggernaut! Holy the vast lamb of the middle class! Holy the crazy shepherds of rebell- ion! Who digs Los Angeles IS Los Angeles! Holy New York Holy San Francisco Holy Peoria & Seattle Holy Paris Holy Tangiers Holy Moscow Holy Istanbul! Holy time in eternity holy eternity in time holy the clocks in space holy the fourth dimension holy the fifth International holy the Angel in Moloch! Holy the sea holy the desert holy the railroad holy the locomotive holy the visions holy the hallucina- tions holy the miracles holy the eyeball holy the abyss! Holy forgiveness! mercy! charity! faith! Holy! Ours! bodies! suffering! magnanimity! Holy the supernatural extra brilliant intelligent kindness of the soul! Berkeley 1955

Poet: Allen Ginsberg (Allen Ginsberg Art)
Poem: Footnote To Howl
Volume: Howl and Other Poems
Year: Published/Written in 1956
Poem of the Day: Jan 14 2005

Comment 2 of 2, added on June 27th, 2007 at 3:40 AM.

I used the first line of this poem to create my comment in a poem of my own

Holy the supernatural extra brilliant intelligent
kindness of the soul!
everything has potential to be more than it can be
most content to stagnate and just become lazy
holyness takes effort of the monumental sort
where only the deserving ships will ere to find their port
with holyness comes knowledge and a certain knowing
that blossoms forth from a seed
and continues to keep growing
it's roots spread deep into the ground
it's branches to the sky
holyness is potential
untapped and left to die

Christine from Malta

Comment 1 of 2, added on April 2nd, 2007 at 3:40 PM.

5342 viewers and no comments?! Surely this poem deserves some attention. By labeling just about everything in the world "holy"--including many objects that the term is completely unapplicable to--Ginsberg is suggesting through irony that nothing is truly holy. Seems worthy of contemplation.

shannon from United States

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