America

America
Allen Ginsberg

1. America I've given you all and now I'm nothing.
2. America two dollars and twentyseven cents January 17, 1956.
3. I can't stand my own mind.
4. America when will we end the human war?
5. Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb.
6. I don't feel good don't bother me.
7. I won't write my poem till I'm in my right mind.
8. America when will you be angelic?
9. When will you take off your clothes?
10. When will you look at yourself through the grave?
11. When will you be worthy of your million Trotskyites?
12. America why are your libraries full of tears?
13. America when will you send your eggs to India?
14. I'm sick of your insane demands.
15. When can I go into the supermarket and buy what I need with my good looks?
16. America after all it is you and I who are perfect not the next world.
17. Your machinery is too much for me.
18. You made me want to be a saint.
19. There must be some other way to settle this argument.
20. Burroughs is in Tangiers I don't think he'll come back it's sinister.
21. Are you being sinister or is this some form of practical joke?
22. I'm trying to come to the point.
23. I refuse to give up my obsession.
24. America stop pushing I know what I'm doing.
25. America the plum blossoms are falling.
26. I haven't read the newspapers for months, everyday somebody goes on trial for murder.
27. America I feel sentimental about the Wobblies.
28. America I used to be a communist when I was a kid and I'm not sorry.
29. I smoke marijuana every chance I get.
30. I sit in my house for days on end and stare at the roses in the closet.
31. When I go to Chinatown I get drunk and never get laid.
32. My mind is made up there's going to be trouble.
33. You should have seen me reading Marx.
34. My psychoanalyst thinks I'm perfectly right.
35. I won't say the Lord's Prayer.
36. I have mystical visions and comic vibrations.
37. America I still haven't told you what you did to Uncle Max after he came over from Russia.

(abridged)

Updates

• The poll is now online! You have until 11:59 pm this Sunday to vote.
  
• You should be getting emails whenever somebody posts in case you forget to check in.
  
• You can now buy copies of The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri at a discount from Ms. Boughton in the teacher's lounge.

Getting Started

For the rest of this year the book club will be online. The purpose of starting the book club online is that next year we'll ideally start in September and be able to go on trips and get funding so at least any books we read in the future will be free. In any case-

Once you're added as an author you should be able to create your own posts and comments in response to what we're currently reading. I'd like to have us meet at least three times in school to prove to the administration that we exist, after school meetings run the same way except there'll be food. (dates will be voted on so that they're as convenient as possible)

We'll start officially in April with the first book, which is really a collection of short stories. The books are now available, if you prefer to buy them from Ms. Boughton you can get them at a discount. For these last four months the readings will be shorter articles and short stories just to get everyone thinking, and to take it easy while everyone prepares for AP exams, finals, and the infamous BookBowl.

Until then, we'll work through March with some articles- but first I want to make sure everyone is able to make posts and junk.