Beats In Kansas: The Beat Generation in the Heartland

THE COSMOLOGY OF FINDING YOUR SPOT

By Ed Dorn, 1969, Lawrence, Kansas

    The Resistantism of all other places
    On the floor among filters and the spillings
      The cosmology of the floor of the Nation
      The cosmology of finding your place
        The cosmology of smelling and feeling your Natural place
        inside the place, feeling the filters
          feeling the rock, felling the roll
          feeling the social spray at that level
            low down, with the filters and the feet
            feeling the place you can fold all four legs
            and be man's best friend to the End, among the filters
            and the feet, in the rock, and in the roll
          in the clock and in the roll, in the hole
          of the social bilge The Great White Dog
        of the Rockchalk, seeks his place Seeks
        The place for Him there, tries every scrap of Space
      The Great White Dog of The Rockchalk
      moves under the Social seeking his own Place
    in the constant present snap of eternity
    listening with the german dislocated castanet
   His Nose Is under the great pin ball rolling in heaven above
   thru he barren terrain of feet He moves
  from place to place seeking his place
  The resisters the dogs seek their place
WAYNE KIMBALL told me all this
WAYNE KIMBALL sits in the booths, WAYNE KIMBALL
knows about the The Great White Dog of The Rockchalk
The Great White Dog of The Rockchalk doesn't
     The Great White Dog of The Rockchalk has been there
     Western Civilization is Beer
       The Great White Dog of The Rockchalk
       went thru the door of Western Civilization
         Which is north of the Barbershop
         and north of the sailor pants incense shop
           The Great White Dog went between all that
           and the Gaslight, The Great White Rockchalk Dog
             shakes hands with both paws indiscriminately
             For he Seeks his own true place on the floor
               He disregards the social He seeks the Place
               he seeks The Space his soul can occupy
                 In His restless search he looks only for the Place
                 Where he can come to rest in his own true Place
                 and that might be on the floor of the rockchalk
                 The great White Dog is not Interdicted by opinion
               He accepts the floor of the Rock Chalk as an Area,
               like any other, he will test that space
             He is preoccupied only with the Search
             The Great White Dog of The Rockchalk is not social
            WAYNE KIMBALL told me all this, WAYNE KIMBALL
            is social, he knows only persons, he doesn't
          give a shit for the floor of the Rockchalk
          WAYNE KIMBALL is neurotic like us, he wants
         to smoke Grass, WAYNE KIMBALL sits in the booths
         WAYNE KIMBALL drinks beer, has a part time job
     pretending to be literate, WAYNE KIMBALL uses
     the telephone and all other public Utilities
   including Cocaine, The Great White Dog
   of The Rockchalk is full of shit and can't shit
   until he finds his place, WAYNE KIMBALL has diarrhea
   WAYNE KIMBALL hasn't got a driver's license
      WAYNE KIMBALL is thin and knows everything that happens
      He has ears, He is a corrupt little mongrel like us
        turned on to everything hopeless and bullshit
        The Great White Dog of The Rockchalk is dumb
          and doesn't know anything but his instinct for the search
          for his place somewhere in the litter
            of the filters and the literally dropped dreams
            of the Great Rock Chalk, he smells the dreams
              on the floor dropped from between the legs
              of young English majors, ejected from between the
               Dual Spraycans of the fraternizers
               He seeks his place on top of this matter
                among the feet of the privileged nation on the floor
                of the Great shit, Rock Chalk Rock Chalk White Rock
                 Calk Dog, And WAYNE KIMBALL Smokes cigarettes
                 and Thoreaus them ontoOntoOntoOnto the floor
               already predicated by cancer, the slow movement of Cancer 
                And I love these dogs because they are us and more us
              than we are and they seek their places as do the true
              whether they are Resisters or just scared or both
            They are the twin dogs of creation in our image
            and I give them both the floor as I give the Resisters
         This Poem from the throne of Belief as the Egyptians
         Gave and took from the Dogs Their access to Heaven
       That we may all be Gods and seek our Place.

                                                       -ED DORN