Submissive to everything
Open and alert
This is how Kerouac
Set about composing life
Off and on the road
Debauched as
A bee in the pollen
Of a trumpet rose
With pen for proboscis
He scribbled everywhere
In his secret notebooks
In the midst of discovering
Life’s secret-most forms
And so too I have come
To a point in my 57th year
Where I find my desktop
Littered about with folders
And files in a joyful mess
Overflowing all
Reasonable bounds
And I have hurried but lately
Strived to sketch the flow
Of spirits passing
Outside the doorway
In the streets below
And the shimmers of light
Discernable only to
The innermost I
As they have been cast
Upon the eyelid’s wall
* * * * * *
This poem has a little back story which may worth mentioning. Yesterday my wife sent me an email which really sparked my interest. It was a list of 30 writing tips put together by Jack Kerouac -- a few essential pointers for composing more compelling hipster prose. And I found myself strongly agreeing with nearly everything Jack recommended, especially the first five items (set forth below) which in fact inspired me to write the preceding poem.
- Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for yr own joy
- Submissive to everything, open, listening
- Try never get drunk outside yr own house
- Be in love with yr life
- Something that you feel will find its own form
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