Haunted By My Past

Just stopped by Dr. Omed's Tent Show to discover he had posted a letter I wrote him January 1981. I had completely forgotten writing this letter, and it was a real treat to read it again. Considering the border-line legibility of my handwriting, the Rt Rev Omed did yeoman's work typing it up to share with the ether world.

The text is a sort of prose poem, with the repetend "This poem." The text is also my attempt, following my first reading of Kerouac's Dharma Bums to write in Ti Jean's "automatic" style. I believe there are moments I actually succeed, especially as I am describing a portion of my time in Princeton, NJ. Other times, the text seems like a poor imitation of Allen Ginsberg.

You may recall I had some responses to Dharma Bums in this space a few weeks ago. It would be interesting to compare what I said back in '81 to those entries.

Thanks much, Dr. Omed! It really was fun being haunted by this particular ghost.