Book of Sketches - Jack Kerouac [58]
— Paris hepcat in dark glasses waiting there,
faintly mustached — little suited boy in
black beret, with well off father — English
Flag waving, red and white crisscrossing on
a blue field — (for Queen’s visit)
PARIS PARK
Sitting in a little park in Place Paul Painlevé
— a curving row of beautiful rosy tulips rigid
and swaying, fat shaggy sparrows, beautiful
shorthaired mademoiselles (one shd. never be
alone at night in Paris, boy or girl, but I’m
an evil old man & world hater who will
become the greatest writer who ever lived)
RESTING BY A WINDOW IN THE LOUVRES
— Seine outside, Carrousel Bridge, gray
rain clouds, pushing overhead, blue sky
holes, Seine ripple silver, old dark
stone & houses, distant domes, skeletal
Eiffel, people on sidewalks like Guardini’s
little brushstroke people — (with black
dot heads) — In this Vast hall where I
sit, more’n 600 feet long, with dream
giant canvases everywhere, the murmur
blur of hundreds of voices — Seine waters
restlessly greening near the bridge, trees
blooming, tomorrow London —
Downtown London Spring 1957 (sketch) —
hammering of iron, banging of planks, a
drill, rrrttt, humbuzz of traffic, morble
of voices, peet of bird, dling of wrench
falling on pavement (or of bolt screwer),
truck going brruawp, squeak of brakes,
the impersonal bangbang & beep beep
of London still building long after
Shakespeare & Blake lie bedded in
stone & sheep — April in London,
Where is Gray?
TRAIN TO SOUTHAMPTON
Brain trees growing out of Shakespeare’s fields
— dreaming meadows full of lamb-dots —
The dreary town of St. Denys, a church with a
pasted-on concrete arch on the roof, the
crowded row of redbrick houses, old man in
a garden blossoming a new English Spring
which seems to me hope-devoid. . . . .
SOUTHHAMPTON — ridiculous little boxcars in the
yards . . . cranes in the haze . . . cyclists . . .
little boy sitting a wall horse style, with boots
... fweet of our engine —
BACK TO AMERICA AND MEXICO SKETCH SATURDAY MEXICO 1957
For a long time I didnt notice that
a big dog was laying in the grass
six feet behind me, completely
licenseless, no collar, naked &
glad the true dog sleeps, when
I call him he pays no attention,
right in the middle of the city
park he stretches & enjoys —
Meanwhile 2 little girls play
with a ball (too small to throw
it) as the mother waits patiently
standing with shopping bag — 2
boys kick the soccer ball &
then quit, one falls flat on
his back in the grass arms outspread
to the sky while the other
dances little steps & sings —
An ordinary man carrying an
empty pail — Two guys pulling
a roll truck with one tire on
it, talking — A little boy
comes by playing with a
plastic bottle tied around
his neck with straps —
Gangs of little children
rush up to push the park-
worker’s lawnmower with
him, he grins — A dark
Mexican kid with handfulstring
of huge balloons blowing
his little air tweeter —
The dog is up, near the
ball boys, watching nobly —
he hops on 3 legs, his right
front foot is broken or hurt,
now he hops up to see a
ragged boy’s white dog on
rope leash & a short fight
breaks out — The little boy
brings his dog over to tell me
the whole story (in Spanish)
of his wounds & bravery —
The ordinary man returns with
full pail, hobbling — The mother
& little girls, sit now on the
old iron cannon, she reads
as they crawl gladly — (I’m not
interested much in sex anymore, but
in that mother smiling patiently while
the little girls play)
SKETCH OF BEGGAR
The strange Allen Ansen-looking
but fat chubby Mexican beggar standing
in front of Woolworth’s on Coahuila
behaving spastically, with short haircut
of bangs, brown suitcoat, white shirt,
big pot belly, rocking back & forth
jiggling his hand (left or right, as / according
to which other he rests in his pocket)
& he really makes it, / I just saw 3 people give him
money in one minute, as one
charitied him he turned away &
scratched his brow (murmured something?)
— He cant conceive that
someone (as I) can be watching