Poets, poetry connoisseurs, radicals and political critics lost one of their own with the death of Allen Ginsberg on Saturday.

Known as a “beat” poet, Ginsberg was not nearly as politically correct as his contemporaries.

He was, as some said, a guru of everything that was against the establishment. He had a flair for the dramatic and the ability to make you think.

His daring on-the-edge way of attacking and criticizing the political structure and powers that be spanned five decades.

His angry ways and outsized personality, sent chills up and down the proverbial, spiritual, mental and poetical spines.

He may have been anti-war and anti-establishment but what he wasn’t was anti-love or anti-American. No matter how he was described.

He was chastised and ostracized for what he wrote. He was ridiculed for not being Frost or Eliot, but none of that stuff mattered.

His poetry gave life to the anti-war movement, the civil rights movement and the ecology movement. It gave them life and the ability to talk to the world beyond their realms.

Ask Bob Dylan where he got his inspiration — Ginsberg is his name.

From Dylan to Yoko Ono, from Abbie Hoffman to The Smashing Pumpkins, Mr. Ginsberg gave inspiration to their causes, words to their music and life to their words.

He has become the topic of lectures, classes and discussions.

He defied, absolutely, the politics and social views of his and anyone else’s eras. But that is what made him what he was: the man.

Unzipping the stuffed shirt literary attitude of the ’50s, he provided an avenue for the confused, tumultuous years that were to be.

He was much like Sinatra, seeing how he did it his way. He even died in his own way, no life- support except for friends and family. He just held a Buddhist vigil until the end came.

He was praised by winners of the Pulitzer for being a pioneer. And quoted by others when they ran out of the things to say.

He made the nation “Howl” back in ’56, but they all thought he was sick.

He told it like it is, was and shall be. He used his pen to write his thoughts so we could see.

Gone from us is his body, but we should help his voice and spirit live on.