Beat Poetry Friday - Lew Welsh

Lew Welsh was a contemporary of the "beat poets" of the 50's and early 60's

Which is another way of saying he shared a house with Gary Snyder and Philip Whalen while attending Reed College.

Along with Snyder, Whalen and other characters of the time he appeared in Jack Kerouac's novels. In Kerouac's Big Sur he was the inspiration for the character Dave Wain.

After college and attempting to make his living as a poet. (Which sadly is about as likely as making your living as a poet today.) He moved back east and worked in advertising.

There is some dispute, but he may have been the one who came up with the slogan "Raid kills bugs dead".

So after a time he left advertising and moved back west to concentrate on his writing once again.

But I don't think he ever got his due.

Here is one of my favorites

I Saw Myself

I saw myself

a ring of bone

in the clear stream

of all of it

and vowed

always to be open to it

that all of it

might flow through

and then heard

"ring of bone" where

ring is what a

bell does

PS - I got the best wave of the last 2-3 months yesterday!