May 7.
Met two writers at the grave today – Dave & David. Below is a scan of the 4×5 negative, recreating the famous Dylan-Ginsberg photo.
Dave & Dave where on their way to la la Books in Lowell for an event promoting the Lowell Review 2022, which has one of David Daniel’s works. Dave will be published in the next edition.
The Lowell Review, edited by Richard Howe & Paul Marion includes essays, poems, stories, criticism, opinion, and visual art by writers from the Merrimack Valley and across the country and the world. The 2022 edition contains a section on Jack Kerouac.
Meeting Jay Gaffney at 7th and Lincoln, the convergence of roads where Jack Kerouac’s grave sits, was a fortuitous encounter. My friend David Cappella, up from Connecticut, and I arrived there just as Jay drew up on his motorcycle w/ sidecar. Folks who go to JK’s grave (this wasn’t a first time for any of us) are pilgrims, and sure enough, we connected. I asked Jay if he’d take our picture and offered my phone. Hold on, he said, I’ll shoot it with my camera–a serious grownup’s camera with a tripod. And he did. He suggested we sit in the spot where Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg sat in 1975, during a stop from the Rolling Thunder Review tour. It was a chilly morning, but our old bones were willing. Et voila!
Thanks for attending the event at LaLa Books and for the shout out for The Lowell Review. We’re already working on our next issue (it comes out each spring) and there will be more Kerouac content in it.