"The Whole Mess… Almost" by Gregory Corso

Very often it happens to people that one day becomes a turning point, a day when everything changes – once and forever. This seems to be the theme of Gregory Corso’s poem “The Whole Mess… Almost”. Something had to happen so that the author started viewing the world in a new way from a completely different perspective.

We are told from the very beginning of the poem that Corso just runs to his room and starts throwing out things most important in life. It seems like he realizes that all of the Love, Hope, Beauty, Charity are leading him nowhere, and he sees that these “senses” are the reason he was living a senseless life. Corso now understands that he has to start a new life, in which he would not have any of the socially accepted “artificial norms” that are guiding his and the whole society’s life.
I really like how Corso talks to Love before throwing it out:
I pushed her fat ass out and screamed:
“You always end up a bummer!”.
This demonstrates that, as it seems to me, Corso knows from personal life experience that love is a simple illusion that is temporary but very strong, so it blinds the victim completely for a certain period of time, and the realization comes when the hearts are broken and “Love ends up a bummer”.
Also, there was an interesting idea brought up in class that we could infer that Corso is eventually turning into a follower of Buddhism, since he is throwing out all the materialistic things and gives up all desire and pleasure, which, according to the climate of opinion, are brought to life by Love, Charity, Beauty, Hope, and etc.
The poem ends in a very interesting way:
All I could do with Humor was to say:
“Out the window with the window!”
I am pretty sure that the point of ending with this ambiguous phrase is to show the reader that Corso is so angered and tired of these illusions of life that he wants to make sure he does not see them anymore at all, even as they fall after he throws them out. He just wants them gone… Once and forever…