Which Allen Ginsberg poem is titled after the Kansas city associated with his 1966 antiwar journey?

Allen Ginsberg’s poem titled after the Kansas city associated with his 1966 antiwar journey is Wichita Vortex Sutra.

Ginsberg wrote the poem during a 1966 train journey through the American Midwest, including Wichita, Kansas. It addresses the Vietnam War, mass media, political language, and the power of speech to challenge official narratives. The word “sutra” connects the poem’s rhetorical meditation with Buddhist textual traditions.

The poem was first published in book form in 1967 by City Lights as part of a volume also titled Wichita Vortex Sutra. Ginsberg’s performance style is especially important to the work: its long lines and repeated invocations were designed to be heard as well as read.

The title is sometimes confused with Ginsberg’s better-known poem Howl or with the city poems collected elsewhere. Wichita Vortex Sutra is specifically tied to the Midwest journey and the Vietnam-era protest context.