Beat poets are often portrayed as just a group of young people in black turtlenecks and Barrets reading angsty poetry in a coffee shop. However, the Beat poetry and literary movement significantly impacted American counterculture and the development of modern-day poetry. As a form of rebellion, Beat poetry fought against the idealized conformity of the 1950s. These poems were about emotion, exploration, and expression. They didn’t follow the established rules of poetry. Instead, Beat poets created their free-flowing form inspired by the chaotic world around them. Modern poets follow in their footsteps today, capturing today’s chaotic world in creative new ways. What is Beat Poetry? Emerging in the 1950s, Beat poetry was part of a literary movement created to act against the conservative norms of post-WWII America. Known for rejecting standard normative values and economic materialism, exploring Eastern religions, and portraying the human condition, this era focused on raw and unfiltered emotion in its writing. Beat poets celebrated non-conformity and spontaneous creativity. Beat poets took influence from the world around them and wrote it into their poetry. For example, they used the cadences of Jazz performers, such as Billie Holiday. They took surrealism and transformed it into their stream-of-consciousness free