Aug 2014
On my last day in Columbus, which
didn't feel
like my last day in Columbus
we sat on the stairs outside your apartment
overlooking the courtyard
as you chain-smoked cigarettes doing everything
very quickly. Saying
we're on the verge of it, I could be Kerouac and you
could be Ginsberg or Cassady, and all of this could be our
dharma bums.
What an uncommon and unmistakable howl that was, Joe.
The clouds moved towards us so quickly, but
until we focused on the stars, more fixed in the sky
those clouds didn't seem to be moving at all.
It was something about the courtyard you said.
It's all very prosical, you said.
I nodded because it didn't make sense.
You put out your last cigarette for the night and I
walked away from you sitting there
in the rearview of my life.
(Sal Paradise never saw Dean Moriarty again.
Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady were lifelong friends.)
didn't feel
like my last day in Columbus
we sat on the stairs outside your apartment
overlooking the courtyard
as you chain-smoked cigarettes doing everything
very quickly. Saying
we're on the verge of it, I could be Kerouac and you
could be Ginsberg or Cassady, and all of this could be our
dharma bums.
What an uncommon and unmistakable howl that was, Joe.
The clouds moved towards us so quickly, but
until we focused on the stars, more fixed in the sky
those clouds didn't seem to be moving at all.
It was something about the courtyard you said.
It's all very prosical, you said.
I nodded because it didn't make sense.
You put out your last cigarette for the night and I
walked away from you sitting there
in the rearview of my life.
(Sal Paradise never saw Dean Moriarty again.
Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady were lifelong friends.)
Parts one through four have not yet made their way onto hellopoetry. Perhaps the collection will very soon reside here as a single poem in its entirety, although edits will need to be made to each chapter to make the poems cohesive since they were written over the course of the year-- and a year which didn't feel very cohesive at that.
Part one was written during my first visit to Athens and part five was written this evening, now that I am living here.
All of the poems are addressed to my friend Joe, who, as I wrote part one, I hoped would be with me if and when I ever made it to part five. Instead, now that I've written part five, that vision just sounds foolish and rather far off.
Instead, he is Cassady.
Part one was written during my first visit to Athens and part five was written this evening, now that I am living here.
All of the poems are addressed to my friend Joe, who, as I wrote part one, I hoped would be with me if and when I ever made it to part five. Instead, now that I've written part five, that vision just sounds foolish and rather far off.
Instead, he is Cassady.
