Howling

for Allen Ginsberg

Allen couldn’t sing the Blues 
So he started howling 
Not like Howlin’ Wolf but 
Howlin’ Allen 
Howling all over the place 
About sex & God & global excess of carbon emissions 
Howling about soil erosion 
Plutonium 
Thee proliferation of firearms & runaway nuclear reactors 
Howlin’Allen 
Howling like a threatened endangered mammal 
Howling that inborn instinctive howl 
That introspective retrospective collective howl 
That blunt unbending howl against war 
Against corporate leaders and political corruptness 
A mean in-your-face howl 
An agitated howl against co-opted colleagues 
Allen howling with the declining whales 
Howling a long intense rampaging howl 
A meditative in-depth soulful joyful liberated hypnotic howl 
A drunk sober howling complex of seductive tongues, 
Heated finger fetishes, intoxicated manifestoes 
exotic erotic encounters 
A howling existential beatnik collage of poetic massages 
Allen couldn’t sing the Blues 
So he became Howl

From Firespitter: The Collected Poems of Jayne Cortez, edited by Margaret Busby (Nightboat Books, 2025). Copyright © 2025 by Jayne Cortez. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.