The Books They Gave Me

Ginsberg.

About three years ago, I signed up to a young writers site to meet other teenagers who shared my passion for writing. At the time I only read and wrote genre fiction, and dismissed poetry as a waste of time. Then a girl came on one day and I was talking about reading Zafons The Shadow of the Wind, and she told me she had also read it. We began talking and soon we were discussing all kinds of books and authors. We decided to meet up and I went off to spend a week with her and her parents.

There, she introduced me to Plath and I was drawn to poetry, partly because Plath resonated with me and partly because i wanted to make a good impression on the girl. We went to town to get me to the bus back home, and stayed the weekend there. We visited various places, but mainly a certain bookshop where I picked up Plaths Collected Poems and Collected Journals. That night I admitted I loved the girl, and she just smiled and I was left hanging.

I returned home and poured over Plath excessively. Then I did some more research into poets and discovered Ginsberg. I read Howl and fell in love with him. I told the girl about Ginsberg, who said she liked him but didn’t share my awe.

A few weeks later and it was Christmas. I got a parcel a few days after and found Allen Ginsbergs Early Journals: The Book of Martyrdom and Artifice. I was shocked she had remembered, and even went so far as to buy a book concerning him for me, even despite the fact it was Christmas.

The book left a deep significance on me simply for it’s exploration of sexuality and standing in society, and made me see poetry in a whole new light. I loved it. Since then I’ve been writing Beat Generation poetry and in love with that girl.