AFTER READING LEW WELCH'S LETTERS TO JACK KEROUAC

I understand all those Napoleons and Christs.

To be oneself is a terrible thing.

We all want to be something else than ourselves.

We look at heroes and role models, say

"I want to be like him."

So we try, and fail. Only fools succeed.

But those Napoleons and Christs

escape the failure by escaping themselves.

No longer the burden of being

something no one knows

and no one understands, ourselves

included. All is clarity,

all is ease, in madness;

with pity the Napoleons and Christs

look upon us who still struggle.

24.09.2017