TOMBSTONE

I was a naive
   overbelieving type

Kerouac, Jack. « TOMBSTONE », Book of sketches. Penguin Books, 1952-1953, New York. Page 267.

Holy Ghost

“A big piece of myself is stuck
is choking me in my throat

My belief in the Holy Ghost
less and less – it’s fading
– It must not fade, but
  return – Return, Holy Ghost”

Kerouac, Jack. « EN ROUTE MONTREAL BUS Mar 20 ‘53», Book of sketches. Penguin Books, 1952-1953, New York. Pages 234 - 235.

Go Naked To The White

“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 angriness, impatience,
hassels, even that & your
shit, all – will die, cannot,
wills not to live; but the
  flashes of sweet light will
never die, the love, the
kindness of hope, the
  true work, joy of belief –

                              As for reforming others,
                              let them reform themselves,
                              if they can’t they were
                              meant to die; they
                             are barely alive now if they
                             can’t reform themselves to-
                             morrow; better a cleaner of cesspools than a re-
                             former. Let every man
                             make himself pure as
                             I have done – that’s
                             the “reform” –
                                  Work on your own soul –
                             experiment to see if one
                             man can be saved, as
                             the whole lot en masse
                                can apparently not –
                                 on yr own soul first.
[...]
& keep your
flesh fit so as not to
burden the soul with
temporal strains & remove
  that much energy
                                  for its prime considera-
                                  tion & meditation –
                                    God, & Good – Direct

contact between you &
  God means no church,
  no society, no reform,
  & almost no relationships,
  & almost no hope in
  relationships – but
  kindness of hope inherent
   in what that is good,
    shall live, & what is
      bad, dies – Your
      flesh will be a husk,
        but yr. soul a star –
             The greatest & only
   final form of “good”
        is human –

                                  Because intellectual
                                  & intellectually willed
                                  good & so conceptual
                                  good is only a word –
                                   “Almost” no hope in
                                  relationships, means,
                                  no foolish hop, but
                                  true hope –
                                       Everyone to his own
                                  true work – There
                                  is no good in work
                                  which does no good.
                                    Railroads, factories,
                                      solve & give nobody
                                      nothing, serve the
                                      flesh only, at great
                                       time & sacrifice, are
                                         evil –
The true work is on
belief; true belief
  in immortal good;
  the continual human
  struggle against
  linguistic religious
  abstraction; recognition
  of the soul beneath
  everything, & humor, –
Lights in the foggy
night are not necessarily
bleak & friendless, but
  just lights (in fact to
  light yr. way), & fog
  from the necessary sea –
     Stupid, fatuous men
are not necessarily
    all stupid & fatuous,

  nor all on the horizon,
nor completely devoid of
good, or hope – The evil
in them will die, the
good will live – Bleak
& friendless universe is
  only one of several
  illusions, the greatest &
  only immortal one of
  which is good –
    Enough, the words to
  this “idea,” or belief,
    are limited, the combi-
  nations to describe it
    almost exhausted al-
    ready – Manifestations
    of this in humanity, there-
      fore in your writing work,
           are endless however –
This is the return of
       the Will

Just the sight of the “snow”
under the locomotive, brings back
sweet light of the boy soul in
Lowell, the human earnest desire
to revisit Lowell this New Year’s
& soak up the sad hints of
the past in a grateful soul,
  from just ... “snow” – So
    immortal love also hides
    in things – talisman details
     for the temple soul –
      but soul, soul, soul, the
       “details” is the life of
            this thing –
GO NAKED TO THE WHITE.”

Kerouac, Jack. « OCT 31 1952», Book of sketches. Penguin Books, 1952-1953, New York. PageS 228 - 233.

Final Cog

“  The traffic problem is
merely that cars by the
millions enslave us to
new city systems requiring
hours of drivin to & from
  needs, on “congested” arteries,
  naturally – where once
 you’d-a walked – These
   are all conditions pointing
   to the imminent cancerous
   death of American, the
   Final Cog in the Western
    Civ. Machine – the
     supreme end-result of
     early Gothic Phallic forms
     is the skyscraper & the
       oil drill & powered
       compressor & pistons of
       great engines – the Machine
       copulates, men aren’t
         allowed to anymore.
The flesh gets numb
But the soul doesn’t.”

Kerouac, Jack. « MORE SKETCHES CALIFORNIA », Book of sketches. Penguin Books, 1952-1953, New York. Page 216.

The nerve of yr. being

“You’ve got to put a
superstructure of love
on yr. life or you’ll
just be a skeleton in
  the grave of yr.
mortal days, shuddering
naked against the main
  nerve of yr. being,
unclothed for the
  Raiment Halls of
  Will, Severity of Purpose,
– God is a superaddition
to the frame of Man,
like the flesh & eyes –
Therefore unravel the
drama of yr. soul before
yr. eyes, be strong &
thoughtful, be not naked scared”

Kerouac, Jack. « OCT. 4 », Book of sketches. Penguin Books, 1952-1953, New York. Page 204.

Security

“  Retirement annuities
that grow out of group
life insurance & hospital
plans & sick benefits, spon-
sored by the modern big
  company, are only an
  attempt to cut out turn-
  over of employees –
  imagine devoting yr. entire
  life, its soul & meaning
to a pineapple company
& accepting its retirement
annuities for reward –
  “Stay with the Machine,
  boys, dont need to run
  away or shift to other
  cogs, you’re just as well
  off in this one – we offer
  YOU SECURITY TILL THE
  GRAVE.”

Kerouac, Jack. « NOTES ON THE MILLENIUM OF THE HIP FELLAHEEN Oct. 1952, Calif. », Book of sketches. Penguin Books, 1952-1953, New York. Page 188.

Decoration

“Come face to face with
the lonely grave now,
beyond it is Heaven
– the lonely hole you’ll
lie in is the only hole
you’ll have – round it
God has woven golden
 rewards the Fabric
    of His Glory –
 My father only now
is blinking his eyes on
the other side of Light –
       Jesus loved the
Individual –
      America is Decoration
Now – planted palms in
  San Jose –”

Kerouac, Jack. « NOTES ON THE MILLENIUM OF THE HIP FELLAHEEN Oct. 1952, Calif. », Book of sketches. Penguin Books, 1952-1953, New York. Pages 178-179.

Monsters

“I’m going to excoriate
the cocksucker & save
my heroes from its doom.
It aint no atom
  bomb will blow up
  America, America
  itself is a bomb
  bound to go off
  from within – What
  monsters lurks there, bald
head, fat, 55, youg wife,
millions, Henry J Shmeiser,
out of his pissing cancerous
life will flow (from the
belly) a juice of ex-
   plosions – dowagers
     & young juicy cunts with
     high mannered ways on
     buses will gasp – I
     stick my finger in the cunt.”

Kerouac, Jack. « THE THING I LIKE ABOUT », Book of sketches. Penguin Books, 1952-1953, New York. Page 148.

Scene

“[...] In any case this
scene is of no interest
to me & is only an
example. A scene
should be selected by
the writer, for haunted-
ness-of-mind interest.
  If you’re not haunted
  by something, as by a
  dream, a vision, or
a memory, which are
  involuntary, you’re not
interested, or even involved.”

Kerouac, Jack. « 1954 Richmond Hill Sketch On Van Wyck Boulevard », Book of sketches. Penguin Books, 1952-1953, New York. Pages 63-64.

Doom is your name

“[...] across the
road from the
house, in the thicket
woods, rain, rain of the South
washed the sorrow & the
deep & something mourned
 – & something whisp-
ered to Paul: “You were
born in the woods – your
father was a farmer –
son of these rains – this
wilderness – wretched
victim of usurers &
  bitter pain – yr. Wife
  has had yr. heir – you
  sit alone in night –
  dont let yr face hang,
  don’t let yr arms fall –
  Doom is yr name –
  Paul Death is yr name –
Paul Nothingness in the
big wild, wide & empty
world that hates you
is your name – Sit
here glooming all you
want – in debt, dark,
sad – Alone – You’ll
lose this house, you’ll lose
the 5, 6 dollars in yr
pocket – you’ll lose the
car in the yard – you’ll
lose the yard – you’ve
gained a wife & child –
almost lost them? They’ll
be lost eventually – a
grave that sinks from
the foot, that telegraphs
in dirt the sinking of a
manly chest – awaits
  thee – and they – &
thou art an animal
dying in the wilderness –
Groo, groo, poor man
– groo – only the
Heavens & the arcs
Will ac-cept thee –
& Knowledge of heaven
& the arcs is not for
thee – so die, die,
die – & be silent –
Paul Blake in the
night, Paul Blake
in the No Carolina
rainy night ...”

Kerouac, Jack. « First Book : Rocky Mt Aug 7 ’52 », Book of sketches. Penguin Books, 1952-1953, New York. Pages 12-15.

Vesuvius

"Vesuvius
Oh, be kind
It hasn't occurred
No it hasn't been said
Sufjan, follow the path
It leads to an article of imminent death
Sufjan, follow your heart
Follow the flame
Or fall on the floor
Sufjan, the panic inside
The murdering ghost
That you cannot ignore

Vesuvius
Fire of fire
Follow me now
As I favor the ghost"

Vesuvius, The Age of Adz, Sufjan Stevens, 2010. Asthmatic Kitty Records, Lander, Wyoming.