This edition of Genesis Grasp is undated, but is known to have been released between 1969 and 1971.
Richard Hell wrote this poem as a criticism of different kinds of writing forms. Essentially, in this work, Hell is saying there is no correct way to write a poem or to create art overall. By writing a poem in several different styles on the same page, Hell is basically saying that his favorite poem, in relation to the title, is simply self expression. This idea translates directly to punk music as Hell and other early members of Television embraced lawlessness inside of music, ignoring the rules of music and simply expressing themselves.
Story Telling
Richard Hell clearly liked to experiment with writing forms, and it seems as though he made a point to especially do so in this edition of "Genesis Grasp." Hell tries out writing an essay type story shown below. The story has an insane ending that come out of nowhere to shock the reader. This shock value type of approach to art and expression bled over into punk rock and Television, as they were known for their on stage performances, where they would dress in very unusual ways.
“REPORT she died.”
The description of a very relatable, mundane scene is very much something Frank O'Hara would do. While O'Hara would have altered the presentation of the mundane in order to make it exciting and new, Hell decides to throw the reader a curveball at the end to remove this scene from normality.