July 1, 2011. Diary of a Billsticker – Lowell, Massachusetts, USA

A Word to the Wise Guy

Lowell is about thirty miles from Boston. It is the birthplace of Jack Kerouac. It is also where the movie 'The Fighter' was set, based on the story of Micky Ward, the boxer.

I had thirteen Kiwi poets with me on this run: David Eggleton, Serie Barford, Jeffrey Paparoa Holman, Sonja Yelich, James K. Baxter, Selina Tusitala Marsh, Stephen Oliver, Hone Tuwhare, Jay Clarkson, Hinemoana Baker, Bill Direen, Becky Woodall and Aroha Harris.

Lowell was a great mill town in the 1800s. The mills collapsed in the 1920s and 1930s. It is a worn in sort of place that reminds me of parts of Dunedin. I love it.

Massachusetts has very strict postering laws. This excited me enormously. It's like a Tourette's-type compulsion. Tell me I can't do something and I have to do it.

A man offered me a boa constrictor for twenty dollars. I declined.

I went to Jack Kerouac's grave and cried. I'm not ashamed to say that. 'On the Road' liberated millions of people including me. Along with Abbie Hoffman's 'Steal This Book' and George Jackson's 'Soledad Brother,' it helped save my life when I was young.

The Beat Generation: Allen Ginsberg, Neil Cassady, William S. Burroughs, Herbert Huncke, John Clellon Holmes, Lawrence Ferlinghetti. As someone once said, the most evil and intelligent bunch of people you could ever hope to meet.

Keep the Faith,
Jim Wilson