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Bobby Gilmore's avatar

Awesome compendium .... Mind Writing from Ginsberg, those slogans he developed also useful

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williamphaynes/elliott's avatar

I think the more you read another writer's works; the more you tend to copy that style. I believe a writer should find his/her/ own voice first and then explore the beats or whomever they have

chosen to follow. I began my own writing sojourn in the late eighties, and it was Dave Christy of

ALPHA BEAT PRESS who introduced me to Ginsberg and the beats.

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David S. Wills's avatar

I think if you look at any great writer, you see a developmental path they follow wherein they first emulate their idols, then later find their own voice. Sometimes they do that by mixing many influences and sometimes it's just one or two main influences mixed with the world around them. I find it fascinating and have written about it many times in the work of those mid-20th-century greats. When I see young folk copying their literary heroes, I think, "That's ok... as long as they learn and move on to something original."

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williamphaynes/elliott's avatar

AT 74 my days of copying someone else's style are long behind me. I have my own

unique voice that is different from the beats. My writing is sometimes beat but I wrote a three part ode to death that is strictly my own. One of my favorite rejections

was from an editor who told me my work was too beat. I titled my upcoming book

BEAT POETRY & RAMBLINGS and it contains a beat style ode to the small press fair

where i heard Ginsberg and Corso read for the first time. It's been 33 years since my

work was printed in The Kerouac Connection and Blue Jacket. I have a lot of catching

up to do. I wrote novels that nobody liked for 30 years. In my heart of hearts I'll

always be a late generation beat. I've been up over 24 hrs posting poems online

so if I am rambling forgive me. I always wanted to write like Richard Brautigan

but on that I failed totally. THE BEAT GOES ON

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williamphaynes/elliott's avatar

I'm so tired. I tried to copy Brautigan when I started out. I'm almost 74 and my writing voice is very different from either Richard's or the beats. I do however consider myself a late generation beat writer, in fact my latest book is titled: BEAT POETRY AND RAMBLINGS BY WILLIAM P HAYNES/ELLIOTT COMING OUT IN JUNE. It contains my

ode to the small press fair where I saw Alan Ginsberg and Corso for the first time.

I'm so tired. I've been posting poems all night on every site that would have me.

It's been 33 years since my work appeared in Pphoo, Blue Jacket and The Kerouac

Connection. I've got a lot of catching up to do and so little time to do it.

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williamphaynes/elliott's avatar

Well I commited myself[again] to the beat with rambling footpath around the book so new and

First blooded to my amazon page/ I read of the beats not knowing where I stand At 74

Years old/ too old to be a new beat and too young to be_/¯an old/so where do I stand/my words seamless on the intake but powerful in

Their majesty/ I always enjoy your words on the beat generation.

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