Allen on James Joyce‘s influence on Jack Kerouac continues from here
AG: So now let’s hear Kerouac’s sound. Is that ready to go, instantly? – [Allen is about to play to his Naropa class taped selections of recordings of Kerouac reading ]
Student: Yeah, it’s all set.
AG: Yeah. First, poems
“I also have loud poems:/Broken plastic coverlets/Flapping in the rain/To cover newspapers
All printed up/And plain”
AG: I think that’s (from) “San Francisco Blues.”
“Guys with big pockets/And heavy topcoats/ And slit scar/Head bands down/The middle of their hair/All Bruce Barton combed/Stand surveying Harrison,/Folsom and the ramp/And the red brick clock/Wishing they had a woman/Or some money,/ honey.”
AG: Can this be heard?
Student: Yeah.
“Westinghouse Elevators/Are full of pretty girls/With classy cans/And cute pans/And long slim legs/And eyes for the boss/At quarter of four”
“Old age is an Indian/With gray hair/And a one/ In an old coat/Tapping along the rainy street/To see the pretty oranges/And the stores/On his big day/When the dog’s let out.”
[re San Francisco Blues – See David Ulin‘s Christmas 2023 article – “What does it have to tell us now?]
“Praised be man, he is existing in milk/and living in lillies-/And his violin music takes place in milk/and creamy emptiness-/Praised be the unfolded inside pearl/ flesh of tend’rest thought-/(petrels on the follying/ wave-valleys idly/ sing themselves asleep)-/Praised be delusion, the ripple-/Praised be the Holy Ocean of Eternity-/Praised be I, writing, dead already &/ dead again-/Dipped in acid inkl/the flamd/of T I m/The Anglo Oglo Saxon Manouevers/Of Old Poet-o’s-/ Praised be wood, it is milk-/Praised be Honey at the Source -/Praised be the embrace of soft sleep/- the valor of angels in valleys/of hell on earth below -/
Praised be the Non ending-/ Praised be the lights of earth-man-/Praised be the watchers-
Praised be my fellow man/For dwelling in milk’
AG: Two.. Two-hundred-and-twenty-eighth Chorus (of Mexico City Blues).
Next, I think, what is it? – Two-hundred-twenty-ninth Chorus.
“In the ocean there’s a very sad turtle/(Even tho the SS Mainline Fishin Ship/is reeling in the merit like mad)/ Swims longmouthed & sad, looking/for the Impossible Except Once/
afternoon when the Yoke, Oh,/the old Buddha Yoke set a-floatin/is in the water where the turtle raises/ his be-watery snop to the sea/and the Yoke yokes the Turtle a Eternity -/”Tell me O Bhikkus,/what are the chances,/ of such a happening,/ for the turtle is old/and the yoke free,/ and the 7 oceans bigger/ than any we see/in this tiny party.”/Chances are slender -/ In a million million billion kotis/ of Aeons and Incalcuables, Yes,/ the Turtle will set that/ Yoke free,/ but till then, harder yet/ are the chances, for a man/to be reborn a man/
in this Karma earth”
AG: Does everybody know that story? …. Now, does anybody know that story of the turtle? here? at all? knows what he’s referring to? – (to Student) can you tell?
Student: Oh, I don’t know too well. It’s something about how hard it is to obtain enlightenment?
AG: No, how hard it is to be born a human being..
Student: Oh is that it?
AG: In a.. to be born in a situation where you can hear dharma, you can hear the word of dharma, and to be born in the human form so you’ve got ears, so you can actually hear an see what’s going on in the universe and liberate yourself from the illusion of it.So the traditional Buddhist story which Kerouac got from Dwight Goddard‘s Buddhist Bible, where that story is told (it being an old old famous story used in Tibetan and Zen Buddhism is that it would be easier… it’s harder to obtain human birth, it’s a harder chance of all the nothingness aeons for the sperm to find the right place and to get to the right spot and for the spirit to be born in human form. It’s harder than if you had a turtle that had been under the ocean for thousands of years, a giant turtle that had been swimming under the ocean, and never come up for air, for maybe a thousand years, to accidentally come up just in time to stick his head up to the surface, through a garland of flowers, tossed out by a., somebody aware of the situation, I suppose, a Buddhist or someone .So, a yoke. It would be harder to be born in a human being than it would be for that turtle to come by accident up to the surface of the ocean, his head through the yoke. So.. I can say it again…Is the story clear?..You know, like one billion-billionth of a chance, say. This is Kerouac’s retelling of that with his fine phrasing of his “reeling”, his “be-watery stop” (you know, above the surface)
“..(And you know) in the ocean there’s a very sad turtle/(Even tho the SS Mainline Fishin Ship/ is reeling in the merit like mad)/Swims longmouthed & sad, looking/for the Impossible Except Once/ afternoon when the Yoke, Oh,/the old Buddha Yoke set a-floatin/is in the water where the turtle raises/ his be-watery snop to the sea/and the Yoke yokes the Turtle/a Eternity – “Tell me O Bhikkus/ what are the chances/of such a happening/ for the turtle is old
and the yoke free/ and the 7 oceans bigger/ than any we see/ in this tiny party.”/ Chances are slender -/ In a million million billion kotis/ of Aeons and Incalculables. Yes,/ the Turtle will set that Yoke free,/ but till then, harder yet/ are the chances, for a man/to be reborn a man
in this Karma earth.”
AG: You can see the smell of fish and chips – “S.S.Mailine..”
to be continued.
Audio for the above can be heard here, beginning at approximately one-hundred-one and-a–half in and concluding at approximately one-hundred-and-nine minutes in