They Can’t Kill Themselves

The Allen Ginsberg character, as a freshman at Columbia, is so disdainful of structured, metred poetry, how could I resist the temptation to review this film in the form of a sonnet?

Columbia seems far too staid a place
To spawn a revolution in the word
But from the moment LuLu showed his face
The rumblings of a radical were heard

We see the user muse in action fast
A party, uninvited guests and all
His current benefactor prey, his last?
Another germinating in the hall

With Bill the young, who sounds like Bill the old
And Jack, the dashing ne’er-do-well, but bright
The drugs, the antics, plots and schemes unfold
The prey drowns softly, helplessly this night

The user muse a loser muse, not nice
He even fails to kill himself, and twice

But still, I am moved by an uncanny depiction of William S. Burroughs as a much younger man than I am used to, with the voice and cadence I have heard recorded for myself, and a scene that makes his literary approach more concrete for the viewers. I have to re-take that sonnet in Burroughs’ cut-up style.

Columbia seems far too staid a radical were heard

We see the moment LuLu showed his last?
Another germinating in action fast
A party, uninvited guests and all
His current benefactor prey, his face
The rumblings of a loser muse, not nice
He even fails to kill himself, and schemes unfold
The prey drowns softly, helplessly this night

The user muse a loser muse, not nice
He even fails to kill himself, and schemes unfold
The prey drowns softly, helplessly this night

The user muse a revolution in action fast
A party, uninvited guests and twice

I used the cut-up engine found here for this exercise. Well, it seems that Blogger didn't like my link (page required java and came with all kinds of warnings. I recommend following the link from my other William S. Burroughs themed post to find a wealth of different resources for text manipulation.