- More of the Dharma -

- from Tales Of Café Apollinaire -

by Gordon Coombes


Jack Kerouac telling tales speeding

across America in old Fords Chevies shiny Cadillacs

passing wild neon flashing painted bus


of Ken Kessey & the Merry Pranksters

from New York to San Francisco

from Boulder to New Orleans & Mexico

picking up hitch-hikers to tap them

for gas booze food weed

discovering Buddha dreaming

of being a monk becoming Dharma Bums

living in solitude at Big Sur

& Desolation Mountain

so good so sweet at first

silence boredom taking their toll

preaching sermons to disinterested squirrels

prophecies revealed of the rucksack revolution

of thousands of Dharma Bums hitting the road

to San Francisco Monterey Woodstock

ending in confusion & cynicism

lost in drug induced euphoria mistaking

misfiring synaptic brain pathways


for Holy Visions Ideals bought & sold

in Temple Markets-


Kerouac returning to his mother & his cat

wanting to be apple-pie-American

saying this is not what I meant

naive idealists ripe-pickings

for false prophets power hungry Gurus

Self-proclaimed Messiahs & homicidal maniacs-


Kerouac Dharma Bumming in books & cafes

with friends & strangers

On a Mexican-style bus ride chickens & all

on the side of the road pockets empty

waiting forever for a ride beneath the searing summer sun

frozen to the bone in the dead of winter

on a plane crossing the continent


in marijuana dreams in meditation

sitting Zen in Temples public parks

in times of want in times of plenty

tending my garden in solitude

taking a breath the Buddha inside breathes -

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