I wrote this in 2007 commemorating 50 years since On the Road was published. Not my favourite JK book, that has to be The Subterraneans or Dharma Bums, but I've followed its journey into cinema with interest, and despite the indifferent reviews am trying to approach seeing it with an open mind. He was a flawed character. Not that hard to identify with.

 

Go Jack Go! (19 April 2007)

 

Spaced-out and restless road runner                  

Detained for howling at the moon

Witty, well-read, refined road runner

Smoke rising from your clattering keyboard

Catholic boy, Buddhist boy, bi-sexual boy

Pulling daisies in the darkness

Go Jack Go!

 

Spilling your words like semen

Flying high wingless, into the sun

Soaring brilliant like the blue jay

Torch-light on the Dr Sax shadows

Illuminating the poor and lowly

Leaping headlong into chasms of gloom and doubt

Go Jack Go!

 

Poor misunderstood Ti Jean

Misplaced patriot and faggot beater

Lost and lonely in the chasms of the city

Lost and lonely on the mountain peak

Hoping to answer time’s eternal question

Hoping to free yourself from life’s eternal chains

Go Jack Go!

 

Seeing the wasteland at first hand

Breton seeker of spiritual meaning

Searching for solace, collapsing space and time

Catholic bible quoting Buddhist

Hobo idealist and fellaheen brother

Ranting at the American Dream

Go Jack Go!

 

Moon lover, road lover, mountain lover

City lover, street lover, sex lover

East-west , west-east, your motif

Wearing a crown, not of your making

Boy-star of small-town football

Ogling short-skirted schoolgirls

Go Jack Go!

 

Gulliver trapped in Lilliput

Seaman scullion, jazz freak

Be-bopped, spewing bejewelled words

Up-beat, down-beat, beat-up and beatified

St Francis of the Lonely Wankers

Seeking the forgiveness of a merciful saviour.

Go Jack Go!