I saw Howl in Soho (London) tonight - perhaps one of the hippest places to catch such a film. I went with a friend who is a performance poet, and we felt part of an occasion of sorts - but the response from the audience was muted. I once read with Lawrence Ferlinghetti , in Paris, at Shakespeare & Co., and Ginsberg was due to stay at my apartment in Montreal just before he died in 1997 - so I feel some affinity to these people (I dedicated Poetry Nation to Ginsberg). Howl was an influence on my writing and way of life when I was growing up, thought not the dominant one - that would have been Harmonium and Life Studies . Still, it is (pun intended) seminal. Therefore, I was bound to be either blown away, or let down (puns intended). I was both, in the eventuality. Elements of the film deeply moved me - James Franco 's impersonation of the poet is spot on, and his reading of the poem, and interview sequences are flawless recreations. The...