Poems for the Nation

Throughout the last year and a half of his life, Allen Ginsberg phoned many of his poet friends to ask if they had any social verses opposing America's rightwing drift or otherwise speaking their current political minds. This volume presents the perceptive and visionary poems that Ginsberg collected (with selections based on his notes), and also includes writings from contributors to "Planet News," an historic tribute to Allen Ginsberg that was held at New York City's St. John the Divine Cathedral in May 1998.ALLEN GINSBERG (1926–1997) was the author of Howl, one of the most famous poems in American literature, and a major figure in the longstanding battle against censorship of the arts. A "founding member" of the Beat Generation along with Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, he spent many years as a poet, teacher, commentator, musician, practicing Buddhist, and American icon.