Old rain poems (1956 - 1978), by: Bob Kaufman

Kaufman is considered one of the most important founders of the "House Generation" movement in the 1950s, although his reputation was not widely spread and his works did not reach a broad audience like Ginsberg and Kerouac. This is primarily due to his intense desire to remain unknown, as told to us by writer and editor Raymond Foye in his introduction to the collection before us. What kind of poetry can emerge from a soul subjected to all kinds of racial, linguistic, psychological oppression, and physical torture with electric shocks? Of course, it would be a tragic existential poetry expressing the suffering of the African American, but in a style that blends all artistic tendencies. Kaufman's poetry combines many dialects of marginalized Black communities, and he also has tendencies toward shamanism, Buddhism, and mysticism, as worlds through which he soars above the human experience shackled by materialism and alienation. Often, Kaufman was seen walking loudly in the streets of San Francisco under the influence of drugs and alcohol, reciting poetry in the faces of passersby, but what he recited was always revolutionary, satirical poetry reflecting on America's social and political history, characterized mainly by sarcasm, regardless of the material world or fame. Bob Kaufman's poetry has multiple identities; he draws from the House Generation school, which emphasizes spontaneity and rhythm similar to bebop jazz music, and it is distinguished by its rejection of traditional literary forms, favoring instead the technique of stream of consciousness, as Ginsberg expressed by saying "The first idea is the best idea." Number of pages: 168 Translation: Al-Habib Al-Wa'i