National Poetry Month: April 14, 2020 — Always Be Drunk says Baudelaire

As time crushes you, bends you earthward, be drunk: with wine, poetry, earth.

Today’s American Sentence is inspired by this quote:

“You Must Be Drunk Always,” says Charles Baudelaire. “You must be drunk always. That is everything: the only question. Not to feel the horrible burden of time that crushes your shoulders and bends you earthward, you must be drunk without respite…But drunk on what? On wine, on poetry, on virtue–take your pick. But be drunk.”

The photo comes from an article I’m working on for Wine Predator on Wines of the World for Earth Month where we challenged ourselves to taste these blind and to see which one would be the best with OYSTERS!

April is National Poetry Month. It’s also life during the time of the corona virus. So I’m posting an American sentence or two every day along with an image that attempts to document what it is like. Ventura Dina Pielet took this photo of Crisis Bunny (MB Hanrahan) carrying a basket of masks while wearing one along with gloves. This is part of a series that MB has created over the years, and many of them are collected in her book, Holidaze Cards. 

Allen Ginsberg came up with the American Sentence concept; he says that an American sentence is like a haiku in that it has 17 syllables but it’s not three lines in a stanza but one line. As a haiku seeks to conveys an image that generates emotion and conveys a moment in time, the best Sentences do more than just offer a sentence in 17 syllables. I learned about American Sentences from Paul E. Nelson who I met at the Taos Poetry Circus in 2000; my friend who turned me on to the Baudelaire quote above I also met at Taos. 

According to Paul, the key to writing a good American Sentence comes from Ginsberg’s notion that poets are people who notice what they notice. He has been writing one a day since January 1, 2001. Learn more about American Sentences and how to write good ones from Paul here.