Blasts from the Past
Hold It All It must have been 1983, springtime: I asked former classmate Ray Pruitt what he’d been reading. “Last night, Kierkegaard, Proust, and Phil Berrigan.” Things Have Changed It was back in 1982 We…
Search Results for: Kerouac
Inspirations
[A Beggar in Jerusalem] is neither novel nor anti-novel, neither fiction nor autobiography, neither poem nor prose—it is all this together. — Elie Wiesel My idea of the ideal text is still the Talmud. I…
Writing Our Own Histories: A Spring/Summer Class
“First We Read, Then We Write” –title of Robert D. Richardson’s study on Emerson’s creative life “Something that you feel will find its own form” –Jack Kerouac, U.S. novelist and poet “You have to write…
Milosz’s ABC’s
Milosz’s ABC’s Translated from the Polish by Madeline G. Levine Listening last night to Natalie Long talking about Poland and mentioning Czeslaw Milosz reminded me of reading his ABC’s back in 2001. Around that time…
Lauren Shared with Me, and I Now Share with You
“So easy in the woods to daydream and pray to the local spirits and say “Allow me to stay here, I only want peace.” –Jack Kerouac, Big Sur Listen here. If you find yourself laying…
“Action Needed, Goethean Action”
Allen Ginsberg, Journals: Mid-Fifties 1954-1958, edited by Gordon Ball During winter and spring of 1996 I went on a binge of poet Allen Ginsberg’s books: poems, letters, photos, journals (I was taking a break from…
Take Your Pick
1. Do not be angry, not even at a dog or an insect. Strive to give whatever actual help you can. If you cannot help, then think and say: May this sentient being or troublemaker…
Bob Dylan Approximately: Summer 2019 Course
“That’s all we did in those days. Writing in the back seat of cars and writing songs on street corners or on porch swings, seeking out the explosive areas of life.” —Bob Dylan, 1977 “I…
Arousing Enthusiasm: Allen the Talker
for Laura Lapinski, who makes me laugh while lunching at Medina Grill, walking around the CWE, and hanging out in Left Bank Books There’s 15 to 20 Allen Ginsberg poems I’ve loved, and shared with…
Fiddling with the Archetypes
Gary Snyder, The Real Work: Interviews & Talks 1964-1979 I first learned of Gary Snyder in fictionalized form as the hero Japhy Ryder in Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums. Therein, as in real life, the…