Book of Sketches - Jack Kerouac [33]
Taranto for oysters
San Remo for swimming
Padua for pictures
Stone Age village near Terni
It not to pay is not
a sin to Jesus
ON THE ROAD
BY
Jack Iroquois
Billy Caughnawaga
The “angelic” light
behind Joan in that
“radiant angel Mary”
dream — if so, Edison
is God because it’s the
electric light gives her
her glow — Only in America
a woman is condoned for
putting the man out of the house
Half of mankind is
Snakelike
Ah Duluoz, — when you
left home to go to
sea in 1942 — that
was the beginning — then
you’d sing Old Black Magic
in the night, & love
yr. thoughts, & Margaret,
& yr. good little friends of
Lowell — Sammy GJ
Salvey Scotty Daston
— what have you
gotten since? Edie in
the Fall led to Joan
Adams Summer 43,
which led to Carr,
Burroughs, Ginsberg, Chase,
which led to Neal —
& Tea — What would
you have if you hadnt
written Town & City? —
NOTHING — At least you
met Holmes, especially
Ed, & Tommy (they’ll always
be yr. friends) —
& now you know that you
must depend on yr. self,
& love the few who love
you, & try a disinterested
love of even yr. enemies,
but must work like
Joyce now, “silence,
exile, & cunning” —
All on your own
terms, in yr own intelligence
— Never mind what
Burroughs, or Ginsberg, have
to say about anything
— start by exposing them
all in your parable about
America: -
THE MILLENIUM
OF THE MEEK FELLAHEEN
Then work on “Vanity
of Duluoz” with
original ms. & all
new Duluoz memories —
in Mexico or in Spain —
in Paris or in Pavia —
Fish out that old
“Liverpool Testament” —
concerning Duluoz —
For now — we’ll start
(& remember yr FrenchCanadian
soul) — Compren tu?
Bon — commence —
Oct 28 ’52
The old cowboys of
1930’s pulp westerns were
always in river bottoms
eavesdropping on the rustlers
at late afternoon — the
Pajaro River in dry
California, brush, sand,
cow turds, trees —
ashes of old campfires —
Nowadays the wino
there realizes the old cowboy
must have had that
canteen of tequila forever
upended, the way things
are — Peeking thru
the brush at the doings
of other wino-rustlers
jacking off or cooking
pork & beans makes you
realize once & for all
the world is real &
pulp & pocketbook B
Movie magazines are
unreal — the late sun
on the cattle tracks, the
flies, the sad western
blue —
The flame of the
woodfire grows more profound
& mellow on the first
November nights, in
the caboose —
Remember that picture of
Edw. G. Robinson, a Bowery
bum drunk, visiting a
Class Reunion — saw it
with Pa — it’s as though
I, of the Pajaro Riverbottoms,
should attend the Columbia
Lou Little Reunion of
$6 a head & $4 for
game tickets — in
poor Halloween! —
Oh Soul —
“The trouble with me is that
outside my mind it seems
the world hasn’t got no
ass,” speech to Alumni,
Dostoeyevskyan, embarrassing,
significant
MANTELES PARA LA MESA
The poor little Mexican
gal in Calexico, writing
on Oct 1 1952 to Manuel
Perez in Watsonville whose
clothes & belongings I found
intact on the Pajaro levee
dump, wants money to
buy a tablecloth — can
you picture an American
woman asking money for
such a humble, useful
purpose — “unos manteles
para la mesa.” “Honey,”
she says, “dime porque no
me has escrito” — “tiene
tan . . . pensamientos para ti.”
She loves him — I am
wearing all his clothes not
knowing whether he’s alive or
dead - or in the Army?
I found several of her
sad letters on that dump,
in October, — in the dry
dust, just before the rainy
Season, —
Me: a man made to
stand before God —
Who is the Montgomery
Clift Stanford kid
reading Shakespeare in
the 12:30 local on
Oct 31 AM 1952
— what ignu? what
sonnets of his own?
does he realize Kerouac
is writing the Millenium
next to him, in workclothes?
OCT 31 1952
Evil dies, but good
lives forever —
The evil in you will die,
& your flesh with it, but
the good in yr heart &
soul will live forever —
Evil can’t live, good
can’t die —
Your angrinesses, impatience,
hassels, even that & your