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Title: Cosmopolitan Greetings: Poems 1986-1992 by Allen Ginsberg ISBN: 0060926236 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: May, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00

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Average Customer Rating: 4.67

Rating: 5
Summary: Ginsberg in an occult form
Comment: This book to me is the best Ko'an ever composed by Ginsberg
since 1997, 'tis been cliffhanging on my bosom

Rating: 4
Summary: Sex, politics, Buddhism, & more
Comment: "Cosmopolitan Greetings: Poems 1986-1992," by Allen Ginsberg, contains a number of recurring topic: literature and writing, gay love and sex, Buddhism, etc. Many poems reflect a political radicalism exemplified by a hatred of censorship and a distrust of governments. But I found the most striking recurring theme to be that of aging. Ginsburg writes very movingly of the physical and emotional ramifications of growing older. Mentioned a number of times in the book is Walt Whitman, whom Ginsberg acknowledges as his poetic forefather: "I write poetry because Walt Whitman gave world permission to speak with candor." Also cited are Blake and Pound.

Some of my favorites in this collection: "Improvisation in Beijing," a Whitmanesque chant on why Ginsberg is a poet; "Sphincter," both a bawdy ode to the poet's title orifice and a celebration of gay sex; the title poem, "Cosmopolitan Greetings," a rather Blakean series of mystical declarations (example, "Inside skull vast as outside skull"); "Personals Ad," a poem in the form of a personals ad by an older poet seeking a young male lover; "Yiddishe Kopf," a celebration of the speaker's Jewishness; "Put Down Your Cigarette Rag (Dont Smoke)," an anti-smoking piece that attacks big tobacco companies and their politician allies; and "Everyday," a haiku-like poem about a lama.

Throughout the book Ginsberg uses a nember of different poetic forms, some of which I have already mentioned. Other forms include songs (complete with musical notation), a letter, and even a comic strip. The book is often outrageous, often tender, and sometimes quite funny.

Rating: 5
Summary: touch the 1950's
Comment: Allen Ginsberg was a nonconformist, a beat generation leader, and a phenominal poet. One of his last books, Cosmopolitan Greetings, was just one of many masterpieces given to the mass public by this prolific writer. The spokesman of a lost generation, Ginsberg howl's again in the 90's, not with the dark, brooding "best minds of my generation..." esque odes, but in a shortened, clear revolution of though patterns that defined his later writings. Cosmopolitan Greetings is a magnificant book to add to any intellectual collection, a real historical statement. May he rest in peace