The Collected Poems of Philomene Long

“Philomene Long. Renowned poet whose original writings and readings help keep alive the bardic tradition of Kerouac and others of a half century.” - ‪David Amram (Jazz collaborator and friend of Jack Kerouac). Philomene is a poet. A great poet. Because Philomene has believed in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (or “emptiness” in Zen terms), she has power. At age fifteen she was infused by the Muse of poetry and began writing. Her mother would allow her to stay home from school when Philomene told her she had a poem in her. After five years of living in an enclosure of silence in a nunnery she escaped down the side of a mountain in the middle of the night into the world of angel headed hipsters and Zen saints of Venice West lived a life of dedicated poverty with her husband Beat Poet John Thomas and became the Queen of Bohemia and the Poet Laureate of Venice.