The Poetry of Jack Kerouac: Scattered Poems, The Scripture of the Golden Eternity, and Old Angel Midnight

by Jack Kerouac

Overview

From the iconic New York Times–bestselling author of On the Road: Three revolutionary collections of poetry in one volume.

Rebelling against the dry rules and literary pretentiousness he perceived in early twentieth-century poetry, Jack Kerouac pioneered a poetic style informed by oral tradition and driven by concrete language with neither embellishment nor abstraction. In these three groundbreaking collections, the legendary Beat writer offers a spontaneous, uncensored perspective on everything from religion to the structure of language itself.
 
Scattered Poems: Bringing together selections from literary journals and his private notebooks, Scattered Poems exemplifies Kerouac’s innovative approach to language. Populated by hitchhikers, Chinese grocers, Buddhist saints, and cultural figures from Rimbaud to Harpo Marx, the poems evoke the primal and the sublime, the everyday and the metaphysical.
 
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity: During an unexplained fainting spell, Kerouac experienced a flash of enlightenment. A student of Buddhist philosophy, he recognized the experience as “satori,” a moment of life-changing epiphany. The knowledge he gained in that instant is expressed in this volume of sixty-six prose poems with language that is both precise and cryptic, mystical and plain. His vision proclaims, “There are not two of us here, reader and writer, but one golden eternity.”
 
Old Angel Midnight: A spontaneous writing project in the form of an extended prose poem, this sonorous and spiritually playful book is one of Kerouac’s most boldly experimental works. Collected from five notebooks dating from 1956 to 1959—a time in which Kerouac was immersed in Buddhist theory—Old Angel Midnight captures the rhythms of the universe and secrets of the subconscious with stunning linguistic dexterity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781504047166
Publisher:	Open Road Media
Publication date:	07/11/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	235
Sales rank:	632,884
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) was an American writer best known for his novel On the Road. Originally from Lowell, Massachusetts, Kerouac attended Columbia University. Along with his friends, including Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and Neal Cassady, Kerouac was a key figure in the counterculture movement known as the Beat Generation. He wrote his first novel, The Town and the City, about his struggle to balance the expectations of his family with his unconventional life. Kerouac took several cross-country trips with Cassady, which became the basis for On The Road. He published several more novels including Doctor Sax, The Subterraneans, The Dharma Bums, and his final great work, Big Sur. He settled with his mother and his wife, Stella Sampas, in Florida, where he died in 1969 at age forty-seven.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

A TRANSLATION FROM THE FRENCH OF JEAN-LOUIS INCOGNITEAU

My beloved who wills not to love me:
She with my round kisses ...
One knows not —
Allen Ginsberg

Song: FIE MY FUM

Pull my daisy,
Start my arden Gate my shades,
Say my oops,
Pope my parts,
Allen Ginsberg & Jack Kerouac

1950

PULL MY DAISY

Pull my daisy tip my cup all my doors are open Cut my thoughts for coconuts all my eggs are broken Jack my Arden gate my shades woe my road is spoken Silk my garden rose my days now my prayers awaken

Bone my shadow dove my dream start my halo bleeding Milk my mind &
Heal the raindrop sow the eye bust my dust again Woe the worm work the wise dig my spade the same Stop the hoax what's the hex where's the wake how's the hicks take my golden beam

Rob my locker lick my rocks leap my cock in school Rack my lacks lark my looks jump right up my hole Whore my door beat my boor eat my snake of fool Craze my hair bare my poor asshole shorn of wool

say my oops ope my shell Bite my naked nut Roll my bones ring my bell call my worm to sup Pope my parts pop my pot raise my daisy up Poke my pap pit my plum let my gap be shut

Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady

1948-1950?
PULL MY DAISY

Pull my daisy Tip my cup Cut my thoughts for coconuts

Jack my Arden Gate my shades Silk my garden Rose my days

Bone my shadow Dove my dream Milk my mind &
Hop my heart on Harp my height Hip my angel Hype my light

Heal the raindrop Sow the eye Woe the worm Work the wise

Stop the hoax Where's the wake What's the box How's the Hicks

Rob my locker Lick my rocks Rack my lacks Lark my looks

Whore my door Beat my beer Craze my hair Bare my poor

Say my oops Ope my shell Roll my bones Ring my bell

Pope my parts Pop my pet Poke my pap Pit my plum

Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady

1951, 1958?
He is your friend, let him dream;
He's married, he works, go on sleeping On the other side of the world,
I'm explaining him to you my way not yours,
Life is a pity. Close the book, go on,
Go find God in the nights, the clouds too.
Great huge tombs of Activity in the desert of Africa of the heart,
with their beautiful arms open for you in their youth, some tenderness Begging in the same shroud.

The big clouds of new continents,
1952?

Old buddy aint you gonna stay by me?
— Ladies, let fall your drapes and we'll have an evening of interesting rapes
1956?

DAYDREAMS FOR GINSBERG

I lie on my back at midnight hearing the marvelous strange chime of the clocks, and know it's mid-
1955?

LUCIEN MIDNIGHT

  Dying is ecstasy.
And what is God?
No, — what is God?
Kayo Mullins is always yelling and stealing old men's shoes

Moon comes home drunk, kerplunk,
Major Hoople's always harrumfing Egad kaff kaff all that Showing little kids fly kites right And breaking windows of fame

Blemish me Lil Abner is gone His brother is okay, Daisy Mae And the Wolf-Gal

  Ah who cares?
I've had enough of follin me And making silly imagery
1957

1

Someday you'll be lying there in a nice trance and suddenly a hot soapy brush will be applied to your face
2

Sweet monstranot love By momma dears Hey Call God the Mother To stop this fight

3

Me that repeated & petered The meter & lost 2 cents

Me that was fined To be hined And refined
4

Old Navajoa shit dog, you,
Hoo Hound-dog!
1953-4?
I clearly saw the skeleton underneath all this show of personality what is left of a man and all his pride but bones?
1960

HYMN

And when you showed me Brooklyn Bridge
1959

POEM

I demand that the human race ceases multiplying its kind
And as punishment & reward for making this plea I know
And sometimes I'll cackle, sometimes pray, sometimes cry, eat & cook
1962

THE THRASHING DOVES

In the back of the dark Chinese store
All the little doves'll die.
As thick & penetrable as the Wall of China
And the lights from little tinkly Washington St.
The thrashing doves in the dark, white fear,
And tell all the children the little otay
For the doves.

1956?
The Buddhist Saints are the incomparable saints Wooing continue of lovemilk, mewling And purling with lovely voices for love,
Perfectly accomodating commiserations For all sentient belaboring things.
Perfect Divines. I can name some.
1956?

(Continues…)

---

Excerpted from "The Poetry of Jack Kerouac"
by .
Copyright © 1971 Estate of Jack Kerouac.
Excerpted by permission of OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Table of Contents

Publisher's Note on Poetry,
Scattered Poems,
A TRANSLATION FROM THE FRENCH OF JEAN-LOUIS INCOGNITEAU,
Song: FIE MY FUM,
PULL MY DAISY,
PULL MY DAISY,
He is your friend,
Old buddy aint you gonna stay by me?,
DAYDREAMS FOR GINSBERG,
LUCIEN MIDNIGHT,
Someday you'll be lying,
I clearly saw,
HYMN,
POEM: I demand that the human race,
THE THRASHING DOVES,
The Buddhist Saints,
HOW TO MEDITATE,
A PUN FOR AL GELPI,
SEPT. 16, 1961,
RIMBAUD,
from OLD ANGEL MIDNIGHT,
MORE OLD ANGEL MIDNIGHT,
Auro Boralis Shomoheen,
LONG DEAD'S LONGEVITY,
SITTING UNDER TREE NUMBER TWO,
A CURSE AT THE DEVIL,
Sight is just dust,
POEM,
TO EDWARD DAHLBERG,
TWO POEMS,
TO ALLEN GINSBERG,
POEM: Jazz killed itself,
TO HARPO MARX,
HITCH HIKER,
FOUR POEMS from "SAN FRANCISCO BLUES",
from SAN FRANCISCO BLUES,
BLUES: And he sits embrowned,
BLUES: Part of the morning stars,
Hey listen you poetry audiences,
SOME WESTERN HAIKUS (from BOOK OF HAIKU),
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity,
Old Angel Midnight,
Dedication,
Old Angel Midnight,
Editor's Note,
About the Author,