A Good Poem

Written by Henry Hank Bukowski, my favorite writer of prose. Hank lived what he wrote about. It was dark but truthful. His world was real, he was always out of place and never fit it. This piece was filmed and recorded in the house that Jack Kerouac lived in before he became a pop media mystery. He caught a bus there in College Park and rode the dog to NYC after the positive review of On The Road came out, 1957. His life changed drastically after that, careful what you wish for. Bukowski had zero in common with the beat poets, he thought they were a joke. He was less critical of Kerouac, but not Ginsberg and the rest. Hank didn’t hang out in coffee shops, he was in a funky bar or a sleazy hotel, but always typing away. I was invited to record this in 2000 by the artist in residence. The early days of this house named the Kerouac Project started with good intentions. Through my invite and introduction I performed several times with David Amram, who was Jack’s close friend and collaborator. David scored the soundtrack for Kerouac’s film Pull My Daisy, he also has a role in the film. David introduced my to Carolyn Cassidy, wife of Neil. The cinematographer was Robert Frank, who I met in 1984, with Allen Ginsberg during my study with Elvin Jones. My concept in this project was to incorporate three genre, poetry, drumming and film with respect to the mentioned artist.