Denver Vortex Sutra

[goldenmyst]

Denver Vortex Sutra

I saw myself wandering the neon midnight avenues of Denver hunting the white aspirin of salvation, only to be tossed from the concrete lobby in-to the cold void of Crazy!

Who dug for the shimmering Buddha in the coughing lungs of downtown junkies and gutter-wine alkies, weeping to find the golden lotus blooming anyway in the blue-green grass choking the marble steps of the State Capitol!

Who stood zombie-eyed beneath fluorescent post-office purgatory sorting endless zip-code pa-per mountains while the celestial cogs of my own frantic mind spun out of whack!

Who vibrated to sleep beside the apocalyptic chatter of street-drill jackhammers, waking panicked to sprint through the white Denver freeze catching the diesel-choking two-hour chariot to Hades!

Who tasted pure oxygen bliss in the rocky jagged snow-passes West of the city and wept into the pine needles refusing to descend back to the hu-man machinery!

Who hallucinated ancient Athens in the exhaust-fumed downtown squares, spitting Nietzschean Superman dialectics with the bearded prophet ho-bos of Larimer Street!

Who caught the absolute holy Truth from the paranoid babble of the madman down the linoleum hall and let it slip through trembling fingers by morning!

Who argued the Void with saffron-robed Hare Krishnas amid the cymbal-crashing festival dust, discovering only the sweet hollow ring of cosmic futility!

Who ran sweating beside the muddy Platte River at twilight as the great American night swallowed the trembling synapses of my brain!
Who two years later collapsed in the YMCA bunk-rooms of frosty Portland Maine, staring into the crucified eyes of ex-asylum ward-mates who
asked man, what the hell are you doing here?

Who wept watching a spectral girl turning perfect cartwheels on the manicured asylum lawns of Webber Hospital!

Who found myself floating in the silver belly of a jetliner staring down at the suffocating brick ghosts of my Louisiana high school!
Sighing what a long strange trip it’s been to the empty plastic tray-table!

Who graduated a second time from the cold sterile Church of Reason, laughing at the madness of the institution!

And who still digs the laughing Buddha in the damp blades of lawn-grass, the holy Buddha humming in the microscopic silicon circuits of the engines of the night, transmitting electric Dharma waves across the vast world wide webs of glowing, pulsing energy and apocalyptic Light!

[mnaz]

Kerouac himself couldn't have said it better. Sal and Madman Dean on their pass through Rocky Mountain High (and lows) ...

[goldenmyst]

Mnaz, thank you so much. This poem was entirely autobiographical for me. All based on real life. I deeply appreciate and am deeply grateful for your read tonight.

John

[mnaz]

John, this reminded me of the vibe I got when I read On the Road by Kerouac.

[goldenmyst]

Indeed, I have read many books by Kerouac and I definitely got from your previous message that my poem reminded you of that book. I have also ready many other books by Kerouac. "Dharma Bums" "Big Sur" "Maggie Cassidy" "The Subterraneans" and "Tristessa". I would highly recommend those last two in this list as the best of his books about his relationships with women which are mostly absent in "On the Road".

[mnaz]

I've always wanted to check out Big Sur and The Subterraneans. My fave is Dharma Bums--especially the part where he climbs that mountain with Gary Snyder (Japhy Ryder). Amazing writing. I read most of Desolation Angels, but never got all the way through it.

[goldenmyst]

Desolations Angels I read but it was well over thirty years ago and I don't remember anything about it except the end. His other books were far more memorable. I reread The Subterraneans and Tristessa recently. I would highly recommend Tristessa as well. Tristessa is a very intense but tender and beautiful book about his relationship with a Mexican woman when he was living in the slums of Mexico City. Also read last year the uncensored version of Maggie Cassidy that came out a few years go. Another one I have not yet read but have in my collection and plan to read is Dr. Sax. It is about his childhood and Kerouac said it was the best book he'd ever written or ever would write.