GOLDEN ETERNITY
Poems are the world
asleep
where death cannot
reside
March 10,
2002:
On the eve Jack Kerouac’s
Birthday (March 11), Philomene reads aloud to John from Kerouac’s
Scriptures of Golden Eternity. This is their last conversation at THE ELLISON in
Venice, California. John Thomas passed away on Good Friday, March 29 at 2:56
pm.
Philomene:
We
became gods together, John
Not saints, not
buddhas, but gods
And they can be
cantankerous
The old Greek
gods,
the Muse:
cantankerous
John:
I
never wanted to be either one
a buddha or a
saint
Philomene:
We
became
poets
John:
That’s
right
Philomene:
And
that’s better than all of
them
John:
Of
course
John:
And
must you be a buddha to experience
Jack
Kerouac’s Golden Eternity, or a
saint?
Philomene:
I
never
was
John:
And
Golden Eternity, if you were a buddha,
would
be nothing
It would not be conscious
awareness of self as
being
Philomene:
You’re
saying that doesn’t die after your body
dies?
John:
I
once wrote a little poem:
I know that my body
will die
I know that my mind will
die
I know that my soul will
die
But not
me.
Philomene:
Nor
the poems - they won’t
die
John:
It’s
taken for granted the poems won’t
die
Don’t even have to think about
that
They’d be harder to get rid of
than crab
grass
Philomene:
Yes
John:
And
we’re not dying
We’re all there
is
and we’re going to live
forever
Philomene:
Can
I bring Golden Eternity with
me?
John:
Which,
if it’s Jack Kerouac’s Golden
Eternity,
is the color of beer or
muscatel
Yes, just as long as it
doesn’t fill the
house
Philomene:
Dear,
it IS the
house
John:
Then
you don’t have to bring it with
you
it’s already there So what’s
your
problem?
Philomene:
No
problem - The end
Whatever, wherever it
is
it’s Golden Eternity
Posted: Sat
- September 1, 2007 at 05:49 PM