This is my first time reading Corso. Although I have never been a dedicated admirer of poetry as a literary style -- in this case -- I was inspired. And I hope this work will influence my own writing. The impressions conveyed by these poems are visual-visceral; sometimes raw, but rarely disgusting à la W. S. Burroughs. Corso's compound-word-creations and word-play-deconstructions provide great embellishment to his unique style. At first, Corso's stream of consciousness reminded me of Kerouac, but Corso goes more for the jugular via his servings of brute reality "samples" -- he is fully submerged in the realm of the subjective. That being said, he can be just as ethereal as he is blunt.

I especially enjoyed Corso's geopolitical views via "The American Way" (which foresees the rise of Evangelism and the decline of USA in general) -- and, in the same vein, "America Politica Historia, In Spontaneity". Other highlights include "Work" from "Triptych: Friend, Work, World", and the Egyptology-inspired drawings of "The Geometric Poem". "The Geometric Poem" appears in Corso's handwritten script and is often barely legible -- ultimately, I prefer the scribblings of "The Geometric Poem" over the text -- those drawings remind me of the album jacket liner artwork of the Jefferson Airplane's 1967 psychedelic masterpiece, "After Bathing at Baxer's". I'm giving this collection 5 stars because although I did not love the text unconditionally or unanimously -- what I did enjoy, which was the bulk of it, I found to be superlative. In closing -- I'm happy to have run across "Elegiac Feelings American", and I look forward to reading more of Corso's work. ( )