first journals and poems 1937-1952

august 27, 1944

there is something seductive about decadence. perhaps it is because accompanied by bohemianism, in its turn, an outgrowth of libertinism. charming libertinism! who can resist its appeal? who can deny the whirl and the sway of the soul, fettered by convention, yet trembling in anticipation of life. why not, fear you the siren call, why, renounce responsibility? if you are the artist, it chides flatteringly, you are the creator. will you bind yourself to the inartistic; will you bury yourself among the million sands of faceless mediocrities? can you deny your creative desire? come, then, come, and throw away the bonds that restrain you, your inhibitions and dependencies, become free and jubilantly high flying! soar above the rabble and the buffeted by evil and by vice? then forget, deny all social vice. if you must be beaten, take it at the hands of god and nature, not at the hands of your inferiors. if you must suffer, suffer nobly. love, laugh through your tears, or cry, create and perhaps, perish. oh, which is best? buffeted by the hush winds is the artist! is he to swing with the brute tempest, or stand up against it?

-- allen ginsberg