Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Poetry Happens

A couple of years ago I read a magazine article by someone who felt that poetry was dead and no one really cared.
It is a sentiment I hear on occasion, and every time I hear it I have to restrain myself to keep from laughing. Maybe poetry doesn't necessarily happen in a particular form that someone thinks it should, but poetry is an art form that defies convention.
Case in point: October 7, 1955. A date, depending on who you talk to, that is either historical or infamous. This was the night of a poetry reading at the Six Gallery in San Francisco. Among the poets reading were Gary Snyder, Michael McClure and Allen Ginsberg. Also present was an inebriated Jack Kerouac, who made sure everyone had wine and shouted out the word "Go!" after every line recited. The centerpiece of the evening was Allen Ginsberg's first public reading of his poem "Howl", which shocked everyone with its fury and candor. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, publisher of City Lights Books, would later be jailed for publishing Ginsberg's poem, which is now routinely taught in college literature courses.
That evening was a link in a long chain of events that eventually mushroomed into a full-blown counter culture that literally changed the world. While I'm sure this may not have been on the agenda for the evening, it illustrates just how powerful and combustible poetry can be. The readers at the Six Gallery did not start anything new. They drew upon the traditions of elders such as Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams and Charles Olsen. They inspired another generation of poets, writers and musicians such as Bob Dylan, Gil Scott Heron and Leonard Cohen who in turn inspired Bruce Springsteen to point the way to ?Thunder Road?, Kurt Cobain to tell us about feeling stupid and contagious and Three 6 Mafia to articulate just how hard it is out here for a pimp.
Poetry happens. It's just a plain fact of life. It might not appear in a form you're accustomed to but it is just as alive, essential and wild as it always has been.