The Coffee Gallery. 1353 Grant Avenue. San Francisco. Near the waterfront. Speak-Up nights. That's where you meet him, Clarence. That's where you meet the black Rimbaud. Further notes, in case links die out: Cranial Guitar, Solitudes Crowded by Loneliness, Golden Sardine, The Ancient Rain. 1959. Arrested by San Fran cops for disorderly charges (i.e. reciting his poetry aloud in public) 39 times in 1959 alone. 1963. Incarcerated for walking on the grass in New York's Washington Park. Considered a 'behavior problem' at Rikers. Electroshock at Bellvue. One child, son, named after Charlie Parker. Self-imposed Buddhist vow of silence after Kennedy's assassination. Never lifted until the end of the Vietnam War. Militantly anonymous. Intentionally obscure. From the Abomunist Manifesto:

ABOMUNIST POETS (CONFIDENT THAT THE NEW LITERARY FORM, "FOOTPRINTISM", HAS FREED THE ARTIST OF OUTMODED RESTRICTIONS SUCH AS: THE ABILITY TO READ AND WRITE, OR THE DESIRE TO COMMUNICATE) MUST BE PREPARED TO READ THEIR WORK AT DENTAL COLLEGES, EMBALMING SCHOOLS, HOMES FOR UNWED MOTHERS, HOMES FOR WED MOTHERS, INSANE ASYLUMS, USO CANTEENS, KINDERGARTENS, AND COUNTYJAILS. ABOMUNISTS NEVER COMPROMISE THEIR REJECTIONARY PHILOSOPHY.

ZUZU: Once we were on a float trip down the Ilinois River with my family. I was about six at the time and he was eleven and I was deathly afraid of bugs, still am for some reason. Anyway, there was a whole mess of grasshoppers in the field next to the river, where we camped. We had just finished floating down the river, with is completely exhausting if you haven't done that before and I was laying down on the grass, minding my own business, almost asleep when I felt something prickly on my nose. And when I opened my eyes, there was these huge bulbous-eyed grasshopper with teeth as big as soda bottles, just starting right at me, sitting on my nose. I freaked out and started flailing my arms all over the place, crying and bawling like a baby. And he stood there, over me, laughing so hard it looked like he was having an asthma attack.