the first time I met Bobby Kaufman

[revolutionrabbit]

the rain had elf hats on
as I type the words hit the paper running
I keep think about Bobby Kaufman
and see him standing there at Vesuvio cafe bar
with that wild jazz twinkle in his ancient rain eyes
his old poet friend Harry Monroe told me about
the time they went down to New Orleans to visit
Bobbie's family
said they were treated like kings
Harry had the same gleam in his eyes that Bobby had
strange that, maybe it was because they were both
sailors on merchant ships
Harry would pick me up in his old Oldsmobile
early in the morning and go down to the corner liquor
store

and get two torpedoes of red vermouth
and we would go down to the San Lorenzo river
and sit under the bridge and Harry would drink the wine
down almost in one gulp
and he would get that sparkle in his handsome half Indian face
and shout" like a train load of drunken Indians" at the fluffy
clouds above
and then he would tell me stories about his days on the merchant
ships

And then would tell me about living with Bobby in Greenwich village
Once he was on a ship and he said he and the captain drank whiskey
and the boat was hit by a real torpedo and they had to jump ship
he went over the rail with the ships logs
I guess they survived, because here was Harry with the vermouth
bottle empty now

And then he said something about kicking the gong around
that was my favorite saying of his
Harry was the guy that recorded the famous 1967 interview
on the Sausalito houseboat, with Alan Watts, Allen Ginsberg
Tim Leary and Gary Snyder
I got a copy of the San Fransisco Oracle that the article was in
in 67 when I went up to Haight Ashbury to trip out with the
flower children
I was not yet a poet, but I had decided that I wanted to be one
as a twelve year old kid, because I wanted to be a beatnik

When I was living next to North beach once for a few months
right around the corner from china town, I use to see
Bobby walking around North Beach, he had this intense energy
about him, I could feel and see it a city block away
one night I heard him read at a local reading in a bar
I will never forget that night because I will never remember it

The last time I saw Bobby Kaufman was the only time I met him
I can see him standing there in Kerouac alley before they called it
that, Bobby had that kicked gong look standing there in the Frisco
night
that magic poet cloak wrapped around his wild tiger aura
jazz black Rimbaud dancing there next to City Lights with that
same look in his eyes that Harry Monroe had
and it made my young poet heart glad
I met Ted Joans the surrealist beat poet
in the basement of City Lights after he did a reading one day
he is the poet that recited that poem back in the 50's
"Jazz is my religion"
Ted was such a cool cat
like Bob

[Arcadia]

you are the beats, r-rabbit!!!!! Enjoyed!!!!!

[saw]

this is great, what a time capsule of happenings.....these times of youth ( I assume) were so vivid, as we tried to piece it all together , make sense of the world aided by the artist's takes ( and LSD, of course).....a time of awakening for sure....how lucky you were to be in San Francisco...i came through traveling a little late ( circa 1977 ).....but I still had a great time...saw Hot Tuna for free in the park.....cool poem