Talk:The Fall of America: Poems of These States

The original City Lights pocket poet release of The Fall of America, did not contain most of the poems indicated in the list on the page. Ginsberg sequenced poems from three books (Wichita Vortex from Planet News, most of Iron Horse, and all of The Fall of America) together under the title Fall of America, for the release of his Collected Poems (1947-1980). So the list is correct in the context of Collect Poems. Ginsberg says of this:

Cross country auto posey chronicle starts 1965 at Northwest border (The Fall of America) continues through Wichita vortex East (Planet News), recrosses U.S.A Oakland to New York (Iron Horse) and Tarries 1966 East, returns via Chicago North of the Vortex 1967, and comes back through Northwest passage 1969 (The Fall of America).

In the pocket book version of the book the following Bibliographical notes are given:

"Wichita Votex Sutra" (in Planet News, City Lights Books, 1968) fits in sequence following "Hiway Poesy LA-Albuquerque-Texas-Wichita' in this book.

And

Iron Horse (Coach House Press, toronto, 1973) fits in sequence at the begining of the section "Zigzag Back Through These States 1966-1967."

I will attempt to clarify this; that The Fall of America is a book Released in 1972 which won the National Book Award for Poetry in 1973, and can also be considered a sequence of poems conjoined by a “Seasons of experience,” in the Collected Poemes. gypsy. Actually the award was given in 1974 for 1973. The book was released in 1973. gypsy Gypsylud 20:52, 3 February 2007 (UTC)