Part D Consider what you have learned about Beat poetry. Write a poem that is at least eight lines long and is in the Beat style. Refer back to the Beat poems you read in this lesson for examples. Your poem should have a clear subject and theme and use such Beat styles as free form and irreverence. Your poem should also address an important societal issue, such as poverty or inequality. To improve your poem, try brainstorming, drafting, and revising your poem multiple times.

'Why do you read this book alone?' I was asked.

I stumbled and mumbled.

Julius Ceasar couldn't have been more wounded

by this simple question, sharp as a killer's knife.

Brutus, you?

My fictional world of silence was taken apart;

to read it aloud, how?

The book on my lap, it burned;

the flame of shame.

If I could, or would, should I share?

But to exist as a social being,

would I stop to exist as myself and me,

and crumble into a humble reader,

not being able to bare

the sight of others

in the campfire's flare.