Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

when I became a poet I had just came out
of the psychedelic sixties, in 1967 when I
was seventeen suddenly LSD was flooding the scene
I did not like the education system, so I became
a hippie, I was very infuenced by Dylan's lyrics
I think that is what made me want to be a poet

In the late sixties the culture was shifting fast
I felt the ground under my feet moving
I took what Tim Leary said to heart, turn on
tune in, and drop out, I thought that meant
there was a movement of young people
that saw that the direction society was going in
was not healthy, we sensed this, we were against
the Vietnam war, we were questioning authority

when I left home at nineteen, I began reading
the Beat poets, and then the French poets
by the time I got out of the draft, a couple years
later I had a few poems published in a local paper
and I had been reading on open mics
there were a lot of poets in the university town
this town felt like a mecca of poets

a lot of my favorite poets/writers were still around
it felt like we could change the world, great poets
and my favorites like Philip Lamantia and Bob Kaufman
whom I met and talked to, both published by City Lights
yes, this was the time of poets meeting on the streets
in the cafes and bars, it was the time of poets
when we still could see the stars in the night

and the neon signs shone in the dark and jazz floated
in the air, and Bob Kaufman walked down the avenue
he did not just write poetry, his whole presence
exuded it, in those beat days when the beat ruled
and the surrealists were still a movement,and lone
surrealist poets still wrote poems that nobody can
ruin by explaining them, as they cross to the other
and objective chance always finds its connection

and a lone sax played on the city corner under moonlight
who are the rulers of this world, they are not poets

Man, Bob Kaufman is one guy I would have loved to meet. I read a pretty cool story by Eileen Kaufman recently about how she met Bob. A lot of good descriptions of that late '50s scene.

I need to just turn off my "political switch" (actually, I've had it mostly shut down for awhile). I can't get drawn into the current shitstorm right now. Can't really afford it.
Someone wrote "Kerouac would have voted for Trump" over on LK. Right. Kerouac may have turned against people he saw as "posers" or "hangers on" in his last heavily alcoholic years, but he would have flat rejected Trump's extreme rhetoric. No way he'd buy into it. But what did I just say? I already lapsed. Turn off my switch, man. Turn off my damned switch.

Enjoyed reading this.

So strange,to imagine what it was like in the 50's and 60's for the beat writers, or in the late sixties, when the whole psychedelic thing came through, the novel I wrote tried to give a picture of those two years 67' 68' what it was like being in the center of the psychedelic storm, without trying to understand what was behind it, I always try to point out my becoming a poet had a lot to do with getting out of the draft, so it has always been political for me, in a sense but back then I still thought there were people in gov. that were on the side of the people, but it was always the lesser of two evils, I had my moment when I was fifteen when I realized the direction this country was going in, but then the late sixties hit and I had some bit of hope that things could get better, maybe it was the LSD and the Beatles and Dylan, but it was always the poetry.

Garcia Lorca, was murdered by the fascists, I wonder how many poets that we never knew of were killed by the Nazis , it has always been political, the surrealist movement was condemned by Hitler, even though some surrealists thought communism was better at first, surrealism was about a new way of perceiving art and poetry, it used some of the discoveries of psychology of the time to explore human creativity, it was a reaction to what had brought the world to the insanity of WWi. I guess that the only thing that has changed much since the surrealists and the Beats were doing their thing, is the technology. Everything is so screwball now, but as far as politics goes it is plain that we are never told the truth, and the leaders are puppets of a secret cabal. We can still hope there are some people out there that have not been compromised. Poetry can still try to tell it like it is. I will never forget hearing Bob Kaufman laugh that night standing there in Kerouac alley.

Although I tend to believe we won't see fascism on such an overt, official and large scale as 1930s-40s Spain, Germany and Italy, fascism never really died; it just developed better brochures, payment plans and (usually) more subtle techniques. You reminded me of a story something like this: One time in 1942 in the German occupation of France, the Gestapo, who were always menacing and "disappearing" surrealist-type artists and burning some of their art, burst into Pablo Picasso's studio and harassed him. One of the officers found a postcard of the "Guernica" painting, and confronted Picasso. "Did you do this?" And Picasso replied: "No sir, you did it."

Picasso has always been one of my favorite artists, maybe my favorite, I wanted to be an artist
but my life style was difficult, it was then easier to be a poor poet. I did do some painting but I never had the chance to really practice painting.. The surrealist movement has stopped moving,there are still some poets that write like surrealists as far as know. In any case it is hard to imagine that we will ever see the likes of a Picasso again. Or a Bob Kaufman or Philip Lamantia the surrealist poet of North Beach. I really have no idea where I imagined where my poet ideas were headed, I just thought if I read a lot of books and kept writing that it would take me where I was going. But I had no idea about how technology was going to take over our world. When robots take over then the very human activity of art and poetry will cease. My thoughts are so fragmented I am living in the past when poets were poets and Picasso was Picasso.