Allen Ginsberg

If you are a writer you most likely know quite a bit about Beat writers and poets. Growing up in San Francisco was very common loving the arts. It was not until I had traveled overseas and across my country of origin that I developed a true understanding of the message these writers were communicating.

Just in case you are not familiar with the Beat generation, it was a movement of literary writers right after WWII. The majority of their popular writings are from the 1950's, that deviated from the traditional mindset of their day. These writings touched on spirituality, psychedelic drugs use, sexual liberation, rejection of materialism and exploration.

The five main writers of the Beats were Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Lucien Carr, and Herbert Huncke. These men all met on the Columbia University campus, and later became friends with the San Francisco Renaissance.

Allen Ginsberg had an interesting life growing up in New York City, and spending a few months in a mental institution. After graduation from Columbia University, he stayed in New York for a short time before moving to San Francisco in the mid 1950's. The first publication Ginsberg was known for was Howl, a poem in the written in the tradition of Walt Whitman. Story has it that Ginsberg was arrested for the poem because it stunned the San Francisco Police Department with its sexually explicit language and was declared obscene.

Ginsberg was not only a writer but an activist for peace, he created the "flower power" strategy to use love instead death and destruction caused by war. Ginsberg was arrested many times for his support of anti-war and negative treatment of homosexuality. It was shortly after being kicked out of Cuba that Ginsberg found yoga and meditation to replace drug induced writing and a new way of life.

It was in the 1970's the Ginsberg took the Refuge and Bodhissatva vows and became a Buddhist under the teaching of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

Before his death, Ginsberg became a great figure in American poetry. In the 1994, it was reported that Stanford University paid Ginsberg one million dollars for all of his personal writings. Ginsberg died in 1997 due to liver cancer and he was laid to rest on the lands owned by the Trungpa family.

Peace.

This is my entry for the #goldenhourphotography contest organized by @juliank and @photocontest.

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Camera: iPhone 6+
Photographer: @eaglespirit
Date: 2016
Location: Colorado

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