{"id":7078,"date":"2014-07-11T09:09:49","date_gmt":"2014-07-11T13:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/home\/?p=7078"},"modified":"2014-07-22T12:06:16","modified_gmt":"2014-07-22T16:06:16","slug":"kerouac-torch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/kerouac-torch\/","title":{"rendered":"Kerouac Torch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kerouac Torch<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tom walked in<\/p>\n

with the bouquet<\/p>\n

of blazing<\/p>\n

sacrosanct truths<\/p>\n

the first sermons<\/p>\n

he could\u00a0ever really<\/p>\n

get behind.<\/p>\n

he passed his fever<\/p>\n

off to\u00a0Joe, who then<\/p>\n

cooed the dharma<\/p>\n

through my soul.<\/p>\n

Jack would be 92 today;<\/p>\n

peaked at 25,<\/p>\n

geriatric by 30–<\/p>\n

the richest poor man,<\/p>\n

the denim clad bodhisattva<\/p>\n

to an eight-measure<\/p>\n

saxophone lead homilized<\/p>\n

what it is to live!<\/p>\n

Even through the deepest<\/p>\n

tunneling blues ya gotta<\/p>\n

stick it\u00a0through to see the reds<\/p>\n

the whites and greens<\/p>\n

waiting, waving from<\/p>\n

the other side,<\/p>\n

calling you over for<\/p>\n

a drink and a dance<\/p>\n

to an old record.<\/p>\n

Last I\u2019ve seen it,<\/p>\n

Brooklyn (from Denver)<\/p>\n

carried it to New York<\/p>\n

city and then back<\/p>\n

again.<\/p>\n

I pray it never flickers<\/p>\n

\u2018til America glows<\/p>\n

once more.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Kerouac_585x585\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kerouac in the Highest<\/strong><\/p>\n

Long time I\u2019ve prayed
\nthat old jazz soul spared
\nthis prison of rebirth,
\njust a taste of the milk
\nand cream of heaven
\nto soothe your road rubbed
\nbones.<\/p>\n

Oh, how your feet have bled!
\nBeat Christ, how the earth’s
\nreclaimed your leaking life
\nfor its own! It’s kissed your soles!<\/p>\n

The grass was drunk on you!
\nThe mountains forever
\npeaking and peaking
\nthere is no down!<\/p>\n

Your final death–
\nmy anachronistic soul
\ndespairs
\nI will have never caught
\nthe madness first hand
\nbut I feel you in the trees
\nin the sidewalks
\nin the stone skipped ponds
\nburning,\u00a0burning
\nthrough star specked skies.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Tiffany Tavella will trade a humble turn of phrase for a cup of coffee and a bent ear. She lives in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tom walked in
\nwith the bouquet
\nof blazing
\nsacrosanct truths
\nthe first sermons
\nhe could ever really
\nget behind.
\nhe passed his fever
\noff to Joe, who then
\ncooed the dharma
\nthrough my soul.<\/p>\n

READ MORE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":7396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,218,219,199],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7078"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7078"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7409,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7078\/revisions\/7409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}