Jimmy James Strange Returns

Jimmy James Strange is a mysterious poet/provocateur who was part of the downtown poetry world in Manhattan during the 1970’s. He first appeared at a reading held at the Cafe Feenjohn on McDougal Street in the early part of that decade. His poetry was aimed at a small cadre of pseudo-hipsters known as the “Former Teenagers”. There are reports that some of the members were gay and there are rumoured reports that Strange also dallied in the Valley of the Love that Dare Not Speak It’s Name. The last documented sighting of Strange until recently was at the West End Cafe near Columbia University on upper Broadway in Manhhattan around mid to late 1978. It is reported that Strange soon after fled to India in search of himself. This mysterious writing was delivered to me recently and was signed by Strange….Jimmy Ray asked me to post this……so here…. it is not known if Strange indeed found himself.

From Jimmy James Strange

On the turn of a dime
passing through time….
biting through the crease
his tongue off the leash.
Recycling the pearl
of the innermost core…
out of the Darkness
passing through the hole
from frenetic vision
to Beatitude,
super sensuality
increased solitude.
Carrying a banner
that belongs to no saint,
it’s a let-go trip without restraint.
No censors to trip him
or cut out his tongue,
amongst the right rhythm
IT HAS TO BE SUNG.
So sing sing sing it
and pass it on.
Like circles ringing from an inner pond
Like twisters in perpetual motion
in deep devotion
to the light
of the honest vernacular.
Without the whimsical interludes of the day to day
when he paid with his mind.
And the why’s and the how’s and the when’s and the where’s
become ideas that are no longer shared
by just objects hung on a wall….
but in tune with the steady foot falls
through the luminous gates
into the emptiness
of a no-mind state.

Retold by Jimmy James Strange
Upon visiting “Artifacts from the Chapel of Jimmy Ray”
at El Museo de la Ciudad
in Queretero, Mexico
April 18, 2006