outlaw poetry

Outlaw Poetry

By

Jake Cosmos Aller

Outlaw Poetry is apparently a thing. I prefer “Neo-Beatnik” but what the hey, we are talking the same thing. Outlaw Poets is a term used in reference to writers of outlaw poetry, a type of marginal poetry with Beat sensibility often categorized as Spoken Word.

Works of several such poets is included in The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry and literary magazine like Zombie Logic Review.
Outlaw poets

“Outlaw poets” is a term of endearment used in reference to poets whose work is featured in the Outlaw Bible. The following (conspiracy) list of traits is characteristic of such poets as the! leader in russian start with the vol1 “demons contempt” of Carlos ac Libera :Out law poetry … does not mean to be disobedient, or an outlaw or criminal in poetic ethics; there is no direct sophism but there is no contradiction either;; Outlaw poetry”, is still taking its first steps as a vanguard of poetry but is a form of subversive expression, ‘which differs from all modes of poetry but is neither playful nor fiction; is a silent expression of crushing the system, the angry cry that is not made in the street, outlaw poetry is wild, natural, appears and has the effect it did not have for an invitation..

anti-authoritarian;

anti-Vietnam war activists known for their anti-war rhymes (many poets write about Vietnam who are by no means outlaw poets).

Elder poets that gained notoriety via unconventional forms

Poets deliberately not included in most academic curriculums[2]

Often inspirational to or inspired by the so-called “Beat” movement in American poetry during the mid-20th century[3]

The following 29 pages are in this category, out of 29 total. This list may not reflect recent changes (learn more).
A

Kathy Acker

B

Richard Brautigan

Charles Bukowski

C

C. A. Conrad

Mitch Corber

D

Diane di Prima

F

Bob Flanagan

Rebecca Fransway

G

Allen Ginsberg

Hedwig Gorski

S.A. Griffin

H

Jack Hirschman

K

Alan Kaufman (writer)

Bob Kaufman

Tuli Kupferberg

L

David Lerner

D. A. Levy

M

Joyelle McSweeney

Jack Micheline

N

Harold Norse

O

The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry

R

Steve Richmond (poet)

S

Sapphire (author)

Herschel Silverman

Patti Smith

T

Charles Taylor Jr.

David Trinidad

W

William Wantling

A. D. Winans

The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, edited by Alan Kaufman, is an anthology of American underground poets spanning the post-war era to the present day. First published in 1999, the collection features work from several notable poets, including Jack Micheline, Patti Smith, Harold Norse, David Trinidad, Tuli Kupferberg, D.A. Levy, Bob Kaufman, Jim Chandler, Jim Brodey, Daniel Higgs, Jack Kerouac, Bonny Finberg, David Lerner, Richard Brautigan, Allen Ginsberg, Tom Waits, William S. Burroughs, Carlos ac Libera, Ken Kesey, Justin Chin, DianDi Prima, Charles Bukowski, and FrancEyE[1], among others. S.A. Griffin served as a contributing editor.

? S.A. Griffin, Neeli Cherkovski, and Al Martinez (n.d.). “Franceye | Call”. Outlaw Poet. Retrieved November 8, 2017.

? ? Kaufman, Alan (1999). The Outlaw Bible of American Poety. Emeryville: Thunder’s Mouth Press. p. xxv. ISBN 1560252367

Kaufman, Alan (1999). The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry. Emeryville CA: Thunder’s Mouth Press. p. vi-viii. ISBN 1560252367.

I am proud to be associated with such great writers. !

Here then are some of my outlaw poems, published in Outlaw Poetry. Enjoy and please comment on my blog, “hhtps://theworldaccordingtocosmos.com

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In Search of America 1975 – Hitchhiking Tales by Jake Cosmos Aller

Posted on April 26, 2018 by Monsieur K. — 1 Comment ?

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In Search of America 1975 – Hitchhiking Tales

When I was young
And foolish
Broke and stubborn

I hitchhiked across the USA
Started in Salt Lake City
Where my greyhound bus pass
Was stolen

The station manager
Could have helped me
But refused to do so

Threaten to call the cops
When I grabbed my bags
Without the stolen tags

I said
Go ahead
But I am so out of here

Wondered about Salt Lake City
Went to a bar

Found I had to buy my booze
Next door

And they would mix it for me
Had to order food too

After a bloody Mary
And a burger
I walked about town

Saw the Mormon Temple

Finally about 3 pm
It was time to hit the road
Did not look back

Ended up in Cody Wyoming
Got a room shower
Steak beer
Using my rapidly depleted cash

Spent 25 dollars
Money really went far
Back in those days

A band of professional
Communist agitators
Gave me a ride

To Des Moines
Lots of weed booze
And politics later
Got off the road

Slept outside
Next day
A beautiful woman

Drove me to near Chicago
In a red mustang

Might have been
The girl in the song

Took it easy
Digging her vibe

She invited home
But was not sure
If her estranged husband
Would welcome me

So I being foolish
And inexperienced with women
Did not go to her place

And always regretted
That I had lost
My chance that day

Then on to Chicago
Several rides later

Visited friends

Hit the road again
A series of uneventful rides
With truckers

And others
And a week later
I ended in New York City

Slept along the way
In cars

In truck stops
In high way rest stops

Always moving
Always going
None stop talking

And lots of free weed
And beer
And conversation

One more memorable ride
Occurred outside Albany
On my return to Chicago

A middle age creepy looking man
Picked me up
In a brand new Cadillac

He was he said a dynamite deliverer
For the Mafia
Went to various places
To blow up shit

He hated a lot of people
Particularly hippies from California
And Jewish people

Looking at me to confirm
That I was both

I told him that I lived in New York
And had never been to California

And although I might looked Jewish
As I what was called back in the day
A “Jewfro”
I was not Jewish

Many years later I discovered
That I am indeed part Jewish
But then I did not know

And I felt a bit of strategic information
Might keep me alive
Then I realized that he was just jiving with me
And we relaxed

And he pulled out some weed
And beer
And we mellowed out

But I believe that he really was with the mob
Perhaps not a dynamite dealer
A real made Italian made mafia member

By Chicago
I had enough
I called my Dad
Told him what had happened

Wanted a ticket home
And he sent me a ticket
And 500 dollars

And I went home
I told him I would tell him
My tales some day
But never did

I learned so much
About my fellow Americans
And the strange vibe
That was 1975

And now it is too late
But I wanted to finally
Tell the world

Of my hitchhiking tales
In search of America 1975

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Lost and Found

I was lost
And you found me

You walked out of my dreams
And into my life

And that made all the difference
In the world

As you entered my life

I was all alone in this cruel world
And you provided shelter
And comfort

I did not know what I wanted
And you gave me what I wanted

You gave me meaning
You gave me purpose

You gave me love
And understanding

peace and happiness
Joy, laughter and fun

You were endlessly fascinating
Could not keep my eyes off you

You were the most beautiful women
In the world to me

And you still are
So many years later

Like a fine bottle of wine
Gets better with age

And you gave me
Endless nights of wild love making

Which has gotten better
As well

And I fell under

your spell
from the day, I met you
I was lost
And you found me

And if you go first
I will be lost again

Can’t live without you
By my side

Thus, is has always been
Between us

We are so entangled
So interwoven

And that is the

way
It was meant to me

Note: based on a true story which you can read on my blog or in the book, “Dreams and the Unexplainable” published by the Chicken Soup for the Soul publishers in September, 2016.

My Mother’s History

One day many a year ago
My mother spoke to me
About her family’s tangled history

She spoke to me
Of lies, half-truths, and myths
Some of which may have been true
And over the course of the evening
Her history came alive

She was born in hills of North Little Rock
The 10th of 11 children
Of an ancient dying race

The Cherokees who had ran away
The lost tribe of the Cherokees
Homeless since the trail of tears

Refusniks
Refugees who fled in the hills

Rather than join the rest
In the promised land
Of Oklahoma

Her people disappeared
From history’s eyes

They did not exist
I did not exist

My history was over
As was hers

And so, I learned at last
The painful truth

That due to the crimes of politicians
So long ago

My mother’s people
Lost their land, their culture and their hope
And became downtrodden forgotten people

Hillbillies they were called
Living in the hills and mountain dales
Clinging to the dim fading memories

Of their once glorious past
As proud Cherokees

Now no one knew their name
The old ways were forgotten
And the new world never forgave them

And they never forgave the new world
As they lived on
In the margins of society

Forgotten people

And I vowed that if I lived
Their history would not die
As I knew the truth

And I would become a proud
Cherokee
And make my mother proud of me
And my accomplishments

And so, when I am down and out
I recall her stories and her warnings
And realize it is up to me

To live my life
To let the Cherokee in me
Live his life

And in so doing
My mother’s history does not die

It lives on in me
Until the day I die

Long live the Cherokee nation
Long live my mother

Conversation with Teddy Roosevelt

One morning I woke up in the White House
I had been summoned back in time

By a mysterious letter I had received
From my hero, Teddy Roosevelt

The letter
Asked me for my advice

And instructed me to go to the white house with the letter
And so, I went and presented the letter

And went through a back door and found myself
Back in 1904 being presented to the President

We spent the afternoon and evening talking about the future past
And the present in front of us

And we worked out the problems of the world

Then I told him of the future world to come
Of the world wars

Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan
Of presidents to come
And of the great events of the future

And he spoke of his fears
That the future would become a nightmare

Of great powerful corporations
Oppressing the little man

Turning everyone into slaves
To the powers that be

And that he was determined to fight
For the little man

And he hoped that it the end
Freedom would have a chance
To flourish in the world

I left
Not wanting to let him know
That he had failed

That the special interests ruled the world
And that soon the world he knew and love
Would become nothing but the dusty myths of history

And I wondered what had happened
Where we had gone so wrong
And whether we would find our way back

Watching Cats Hunt

Early morning
Watching two white cats
Hunting a white dove

The cats hunt in pairs
Tracking the bird

The bird flies away
Safe for now

And I think about the cats
And the hunt goes on

Such is life
And the fate of cats
And birds

Cats

I often wonder about Cats
What do they think of us
It seems at time
That cats think of humans
As their slaves

We exist to feed them
To comfort them

To save them from their enemies
And to worship them

Yes, cats are an alien species
Totally different from humanity
Detached, and almost evil

If we ever encounter an alien civilization
God help us if it’s a cat based civilization

We would then be engaged
In the epic mother of all wars

As cats and humans would not get along
The cats would think we were their slaves

And we would resent and fear them
And secretly worship their alien ways

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It is a Gun Situation, Mr. President

Mr. President
You are wrong once again
You said that the tragic events in Texas
And Las Vegas were not “gun situations”
But rather were mental health problems

And that in Texas if there had been gun controls
Perhaps fewer people would have died

Mr. President
I know you a smart man
The smartest man in the world
According to you

So please contemplate this fact
According to the latest findings
It is a gun situation

In fact, the reason the U.S.
Has so many gun deaths
Is because we have so many guns
45% of the worlds guns in fact

And 33 percent of the world’s shooters
Are Americans killing other Americans

And most of them
Are White People
killing other white people

Not Islamic terrorists
Most are in fact
Self-proclaimed Christians

So Mr. President
When will you come to your senses

And do what 90 percent of the public wants
Enact nationwide effective gun controls?

And tell the NRA
they can take their blood money elsewhere

When Mr. President
When will you act
When will you take charge

And become a President of the people
Instead of the President of the NRA?

Prayer Works

Dear Speaker Ryan

I want to tell you something
The dead don’t want your prayers
The dead don’t care that you pray for them
They are dead after all

And you and your so-called Christians
Are to blame
You refuse to do anything
Anything at all to stop the carnage
In our streets

The U.S. is flooded with guns
And more are sold every day

Millions of people don’t have health coverage
Millions are barely surviving
And your answer
Our dear great compassionate Speaker

Your answer
Is Prayer works
Government action does not

You act as if the gun violence
Plaguing our country
Was like the weather
Beyond our control

So here’s my prayer for you
And your colleagues

When you die
I pray that God
Will send you

And your friends
Straight to hell

Where Satan and his demons
Will use you for target practice

That’s my prayer to you
And as you know
Prayer works

I don’t Get It

Mr. Speaker
I admit I don’t get it
How does prayer
Stop gun violence?

Prayer did not work in Texas.
26 people were murdered
while praying.

God if he exists
Obviously does not care

About the poor people
Who died in his church

Because a mad man
Got a gun

And no they were not praying
To be delivered from death
No one deserves to die like this

So my prayer to you
Is simply this

Get off your rear end
Rally the country

And do something
About gun violence

That’s a prayer
I hope works

Add House Speaker Paul Ryan to the list of Republicans offering only thoughts and prayers in the wake of Sunday’s mass shooting in a Texas church, because taking meaningful action is always off the table with him and his party.
Speaking with Fox News Channel’s Laura Ingraham last night, Ryan reiterated that the victims and their families need more prayers because “prayer works.”
Prayer doesn’t work.

26 people were murdered while praying. Even Christians ought to admit that prayer doesn’t make a damn bit of difference and their God will do whatever their God wants to do, even if it means letting people die in church because a domestic abuser got his hands on a semi-automatic weapon.

Not that Ryan would ever say that.

Instead, he just blamed the “far secular Left” for not getting it.
Paul Ryan to “Far Secular Left”: After Mass Shootings, “Prayer Works”

NOVEMBER 7, 2017 BY HEMANT MEHTA

253 COMMENTS

Add House Speaker Paul Ryan to the list of Republicans offering only thoughts and prayers in the wake of Sunday’s mass shooting in a Texas church, because taking meaningful action is always off the table with him and his party.

Speaking with Fox News Channel’s Laura Ingraham last night, Ryan reiterated that the victims and their families need more prayers because “prayer works.”

Prayer doesn’t work.

26 people were murdered while praying. Even Christians ought to admit that prayer doesn’t make a damn bit of difference and their God will do whatever their God wants to do, even if it means letting people die in church because a domestic abuser got his hands on a semi-automatic weapon.

Not that Ryan would ever say that.

Instead, he just blamed the “far secular Left” for not getting it.

It’s disappointing. It’s sad, and this is what you’ll get from the far secular Left. People who do not have faith, don’t understand faith, I guess I’d have to say. And it is the right thing to do, is to pray in moments like this, because you know what? Prayer works. And I know you believe that and I believe that. And when you hear the secular left doing this thing, no wonder you’ve got so much polarization and disunity in this country when people think like that.

That’s Republican thinking for you right there: The people who hear the facts, examine the evidence, and demand action are to blame for polarizing the country… while the people in charge, the ones who sit on their asses doing absolutely nothing (at least when they’re not voting to make the problems worse), should get credit for being the vanguards of everything right with America.

The people who don’t have faith understand it perfectly well. That’s why we chucked it a long time ago. We know prayer is the only thing most politicians want to offer in times of distress because meaningful action would alienate their core supporters and donors. Democrats get it. Other countries get it. The only ones who don’t come from the same party that routinely rejects science, facts, and experts.

There are, of course, Christians who believe prayer is meaningless unless it’s followed up with action. We can argue that they’re wasting their time with that first step, but these aren’t the people we’re complaining about.

We’re specifically criticizing those who have the ability to pass gun reform legislation and mental health reforms… but choose to do nothing.

That’s what Paul Ryan has to offer the nation: A giant, steaming bowl of jack shit. And he wants credit for that meal because he says grace before gulping it down.

Dear Governor Abbot

You say that you are a Christian
Yet you have the gall
to say that the proper response
To the evil acts of the deranged gun man
Who shot up a church
Is to work closer with God

And that evil people will find ways
To commit evil acts

And that there is nothing the government
Can do to stop this madness
It is the price of our freedom

Why can’t you wake up
And see that you can lead
The way out of this madness?

Thousands of people die
Each year from guns in this country
Turning everyone into prisoners
Into their own homes

Afraid to walk outside
For fear that a nut job
With a gun

Will blow them away
In Church, at the store
In traffic

And you and your NRA buddies
Think the answer
Is to arm everyone to the teeth

And I wonder how Jesus
Would react to how
You have so misunderstood his message?

You Sir are not a Christian
And you Sir are going to not like
What God has to say to you
On Judgement day

“We have evil that occurs in this world, whether it be a terrorist who uses a truck to mow down bikers in New York City, whether it be a terrorist who uses bombs or knives to stab people, or other terrorist who use vehicles, whether it be in Nice, France, or any other place in the entire world, who mow down people.
And I’m going to use the words of the citizens of Sutherland Springs themselves, and that is, they want to work together for love to overcome evil, and you do that by working with God.”

Texas Governor: Fight Gun Massacres By ‘Working With God’

NOVEMBER 6, 2017 BY MICHAEL STONE

48 COMMENTS

Texas Governor Gregg Abbott claims prayer and “working with God” is the only way to prevent mass shooting events like the recent church massacre in rural Texas.

In a deplorable bit of pandering Abbott said that the proper response to Sunday’s shooting is to confront evil through prayer and forge “a stronger connection to God.”

Governor Abbott said:

We have evil that occurs in this world, whether it be a terrorist who uses a truck to mow down bikers in New York City, whether it be a terrorist who uses bombs or knives to stab people, or other terrorist who use vehicles, whether it be in Nice, France, or any other place in the entire world, who mow down people.

And I’m going to use the words of the citizens of Sutherland Springs themselves, and that is, they want to work together for love to overcome evil, and you do that by working with God.

Most reasonable people reject Abbott’s impotent call to prayer and a “stronger connection to God.” In a statement concerning the recent Texas church massacre, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said that action was rquired:

We have a solemn obligation to the victims of Sutherland Springs, Las Vegas, Orlando, Newtown and the many tragic shootings that occur each day to respond not only with prayer and unwavering love, but with action.

As for Governor Abbott, his position as a dangerous religious extremist is well established.

Last June Abbott signed into law legislation allowing publicly funded agencies to deny non-Christians the ability to adopt a child in need.

In addition, in a move meant to shame women who have abortions, the Republican governor of Texas ordered state health officials to add new abortion regulations that would require the burial or cremation of post abortion fetal tissue.

Bottom line: Texas Governor Gregg Abbott is a dangerous religious extremist who believes the proper response to Sunday’s church massacre is prayer and other efforts to forge “a stronger connection to God.”

Outlaw_Poetry_html_5aebfd37.pngTexas Governor Gregg Abbott (Image via Wikimedia)

When will this Madness end – short version

Yet again we turn on the TV
And witness horrible scenes
Of unparalleled violence, hatred and despair

An old man consumed by his own demons
Opens fire from a hotel room
Killing 60 people injuring hundreds
In Las Vegas, Sin City

And the cry goes out throughout the land
Why yet again this tragedy

The usual suspects are rounded up
It’s the culture, stupid cry the conservative voices

And there is nothing we can do
It is like the weather
Bad shit happens

Guns are the price of our freedom
Guns Don’t Kill People
The only solution is more guns for everyone

The only solution for a bad guy with a gun
Is a gun guy with a gun
An armed society is a polite society

No, it’s the guns, cry the liberal pundits
We must confiscate the guns
Ban Assault weapons
And join the rest of the world
Where such carnage does not occur

And we sit around and argue
Knowing that there will be a next time
And another time and time and time again
Until the end of time

What is the sickness in our souls
That allows for this hatred to fester so
Deep within the minds of our killers

We are all responsible here
The negligent parents
The overworked schools

The soulless corporate world
That treats everyone like disposable commodities

The lack of human connection
The TV and movie purveyors
Of pornographic violence

Nothing will change
Until we conflict the evil
That lurks deep within each of us

There will be another Las Vegas
Soon enough

Two weeks later the greatest mass shooting in a Church occurred in Texas
Sadly nothing has changed

Published also in Poetry24

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