Bob's Written Word
Four Letters To Tami Dean

First letter oh how I got your letter this morning ... (troubled times yes) why aren't you here. why aren't you hear (here) ah the good an happy times slay me. do they slay you. who are you. I mean really now. (you know I dont). do you write poetry as well as paint. (I read your letter twice. my friend is readin it now. (I claim you to be one of thee great disrobed artists. (your texas blood disturbs me) ... say hi t John faulk. tell him I dont mind that he grabbed my leg. tell him I dont mind at all. as for you, my leg is out anytime. I'll even close my eyes. have you hitch hiked long? stop soon tho' huh. we need you on the lines. we need you at home. hey, we need you with us. get the fuck off the highway. (a fine spade chick just walked by.) write out a bunch of letters. (she has plaster in her eyes.) send them by mail (an she is cryin) an that's all you gotta do. (I think she was cryin; where is denton texas. I was in dallas three weeks ago. passin thru. (up tite?) no slushin thru. (wierd) mozze-in thru. pullin in a gas station outside of dallas... "hi killer. fill 'er up" ... "yeh yeh yes sir. right away sir" ... have you ever rode on number 287 highway. have you ever been in witchita falls? it is rainin here today. new york is a lonesome town. (as the forsakeness of high degree romance overtakes me.) my poor embeded soul. mu lusty soul. (tell me about my soul.) I said tell me ... click. (oh these humphrey bogart weegy words at times do bury me. why did you think that I might think that you thought i thunk you were for a second an ivy joe? (wow!) you dirty ivy joe. do you actually know any ivy joes? I know what a grassy john is explainin what color you eyes are to me. tell me how you walk. yes talk t me. forgive (please forgive) me an my directions if you never hear any echo back again. (fuck the echoes) ... I have heard your echo by that you know (must know?) that you must've heard me. yes heard me at one time or another. sometime I will talk t you (as opposed to 'shall') if only my time was mine. right? (jesus christ anyway.) hey I'll see you sometime. sometime on a strange nite. when the leaves're blowin. an it's close t shiverin. when the headlights pass above the bluff yeah (yeah?) yes I'll meet you by the crossing. the criss crossin on the edge of town. in the brown dust. (sneezin) an you can sing love poems in my ears. I will tell you how I see the outline of the sky. (yes we will walk all the way t california. t salinas. (no. t sanfrancisco.) anyway ... I know you wont get killed waitin for me. We will just be gettin up the same time on the same day an eventually (oh god) meet? at the same place. (come come now mr. dylan) I'm comin ... hey I'm always comin. an the so well oh wow therefore ahah what by far - I mean t say is that i cant think right now of t much to say. you have caught me with drowsy thoughts. I'm going out t ride the ferris wheel. yes there's one down the street an my driver is waitin. write me another letter. I will receive it. an you know I will read it .... hey, so long an I see you then me ... muzzled? an puzzled hustled rustled in an out reeferized homogenized tenderized ... cocained gas stained high brained an half trained tell me more (signed 'Bob Dylan') Second letter my life, yes, could be better by you. an also martha an the vandellas. (yes it's true I answer all fan mail.) I shall concede t the fact I think you are a true poet. as for my afternoons, they are spent on the smilin highways. the hysterical street corners. the mad blushin (russian) ever-flowin flacky snowbanks. do you dig major lance? oh gawd (oh god) you have t dig major lance. I am tappin in time t monkey time. I am swirlin in "you get yours I'll get mine" an then the music begins t play. an the forsaken echo of gettin ready prancin. prancin. it fills (believe it or not) this whole fuckin room. I am out in jersey. new jersey. New Jersey? I am swarmin in the suberbs. we have invaded the home of a writer friend of mine. his kids an my friends an his wife an my kids (all of us) yes we are runnin wild with all windows open dancin dancin. flyin around this house. marvin gaye. do you know "who" marvin gaye is? he's singin' now. about somewitness. he's gotta get a witness. he's gotta get a witness and me? me - i gotta get a witness too. all of us ha yes all of us. we all gotta get witnesses. you ask of my notes. are you askin of MY nite or my NITES? hey, my nites are nothin. I stay up sometimes all nite. sometimes I even go t sleep before nite comes. before nite falls. before nitefall. come fast, you dope fiend angel. you methedrene pen pal lover. (you freaky lad sister) of (of course) mounin mournin mornin glory seacher of jesus. do you dig jesus? yes, tho, come an save my poor (my poor me) lifeless body, limp on joannie's strange bed. my eyes are blue. sometimes they (I'm told) turn green. why do you write such short words. I have nothin t do. I have nothin t do at all. i dont even have sometimes something t do. I never have nothin t do. (ah but I do so many things) do you do alot of things? tell me how many things you do. do you greet people on the street? (how's your soul today?) do you talk t the neighbors? (what do yuh mean, 'what do I mean by the word-soul?' just what d yuh mean what do I mean by that anyway?) you must ask for cigarettes someplace (ok, ok for you. then I wont ask you again) what are you doing in texas? I dont know what the fuck I spend my rainfalls like. I gaze out of cathedral windows when I can. at other times I gaze up at them from the rainy street. an at other times I just think of them as I know them from rainly (rainy memories). remembrances of water soaked days. yes an recollections of foggy wanderings to and fro. up and down. around an about. here and there. ahah i would like t meet you. I would like t meet you as I fade out. as I lastly laugh. as I turn an smile. an say farewell. come an jump on me. come an leep on me from a tall building. I will be high so it wont matter. I'll even buy you an airplane permit. what do you do for christsake crizake crise ache down there in where you live. write t me nex time at bobdylan box 125 fairsfield, bearsville, new york. yes you see, I get most letters like you write directed there. it is my official allen ginsberg adress. (even he, yes writes t me. in fast form. so I'll get it quickly, there.) you write there too. I'll madly rip your letter open in the dusty driveway of the 1p10 post-office. tear it savigely an read it droolin an spittin. I will dance down the almost forgotten dirtroad wavin insanely your letter. yes write t me again. there is for you much t write. (as for me. my writin is too muchly as it is) I have t run. I have t run here. I have t stop. I have t jack off my digingness an stroke my uptiteness. I have t think of my lovin memories. I have t go breathe on the innocent front porch. I have t go breathe innocently. it's quiet there an I know in front that it's quiet. perhaps that's why I have t go there. in any case, the paper is growin dizzy on me. an my words (t say anything at all) are sting together. write an tell me more I am in your bed so please watch your head mornin is such a bring down faretheewell then I'll see you breakin feardy worlds makin wierdy girls (is that it?) Signed five times in three margins, a sixth signature has been cut out. Third letter hi there. gee it was good t hear from you. How're the kids? the weather here is just beautiful. maggy caught a duck the other day. little suzy is five now. you oughta hear her talk. jesus willikers she can walk an do all the stuff. she comes in her pants at five years old an keeps asking when you're coming back. me? I'm ok. fell down the chimney tryin t fix a flat but other than that I'm still up an at 'm. a hard rain rottled all my onions last week. gonna write a song about it when I get the time. jerry ate too many cream puffs an blew up. we tried t feed him pills but nothin worked. we buried him at the bottom of the pool. "strange algee growin" said martha when she gazed out from the diving board. you remember martha. funny little chick hung up on masterbating in tin can. yeah well, she saw jerry down there an shit. the pool's pretty funky now. this yul brynner looking spade that hangs out at worlds fair is scheduled to come clean at it at four o'clock. we're all just sittin round waiting for him. nothin new is happenin. doctor zen says hello. I told him you were off in oklahoma. he says no she's not. i say ok i dig. there is no oklahoma. he says you asshole there is no she. i say ok ok he says hi to her.. doc gets wierd sometimes. he stuffs lsd in his turban most everyday an is workin on doing summersault experiments while blowing his nose thru glass tube. currently he's expecting t come up with a new formula for cross breeding belly hairs with rattlesnakes. all in all everybody's been quite busy. you oughta see Ramar von Cringe do his new act. Highly top secret am not composed enuff t tell about it except that sky gets black every time he does it. jinx and her dog both got draged by high flyin railroad train not too soon ago. jinx fell off in new jersey. dog i hear dog ride an rode t florida. lastly we heard he was in Mexico. livin with poncho lookin senorita round guantonovistima square. oh forgeot t tell you. geno an hugh discovered they were writing the same book. did pillow feathers fly around here for a week. geno left carrying stash in open elbow wound down highway 95 in early mornin. depressed? goddam you shoulda seen him. doctor zen just laughed said "see yuh later geno" geno never heard. hugh sits with high powered binoculars up totem pole. just sits there. aint ate for a week. guilty? oh god we try t pull him out of it but he just mumble somethin about that he cant understand. that's he seems t say "i cant understand i cant unnerstand". neibors say they can hear him at nite. i think he's sayin "a cannon hurts sand" a cannon hurts sand but i dont speak too loud an keep the thought t myself dont hurt no feelings that way an doc says its good for one t talk t oneself. oh, the greatest thing happened t mary lou you know-who. she picked up some wanted posters at the post office an went out bounty hunting. caught this cat who robbed tennessee dentist of 20 pounds of gold. chased him thru lincoln tunnel going 50 hair blowing. dress flying. trapped him finally in connecticut deserted mine shaft. she took off her clothes an he came out with his arms open. takin off shirts an pants. she kicked his balls with boot she bought in texas. the cat just keeled over an moans. hit the front pages round here. poor outlaw layin on ground. mouth twisted out of shape. mary lou you-know-who standing over him looking like teddy rovevelt. yeah well i gotta go. we're filming a movie in about an hour. i gotta play humprey bogart. things looking up a little as some fellow yesterday offered me record contract. zelda flipped. says t do it. me? i'm not too sure. i ask Anthello what he thinks an he tells me two a n two never make four. not so muchs as ( ------ ) myself thinking about it too seriously. i disappear in dostoevsky books dont come back til sundown. have still got my eyes on the future an am not letting go of my visions t make it with terry thomas. my friend mavis says it's possible but might have t go thru peter sellers first. i ask her what she means by that an she say the answer is blowing in the wind. i've always knew she was crazy but the chick has gone outright loony. anyway watch them indians out there an remember nothin's right write meme. Aleu the goodest god Unsigned. Fourth letter so there i was. riding on this umbrella. omaha passed gaily. daily i shouted t going by friends "hey hey dig me can you dig me on this umbrella. can you do it can you do it?" rememberin i had no friends anyway in nebraska i decided t cool my energy. whishin hopin thinkin sucking huummmmmm feeling grabbing. stabbing. pulling scathing snathin snellin smelling jump humping licking fucking wondering no hope thisaway not this time that time yuhp uh huh that's the way t get 'm. then heeeee'llllll be yoarssssssssss. whishin and a hoping hopin rather gather me? me open. not scared up there. ol bee jay rides by. texas sweatshirt lost he says. linda bee jay on shoulders shitting down his neck. "nice day parder" he says all of a sudden looking like a chinaman. i say "you men PARDNER, doncha buddy?" he says "while shore" just then, this buzzard with frank sinatra's face on, if you look closly, comes flying out the poverty pavilion. circles the sky. throws out a few care packages of gorilla shit. smiles. opens her mouth and her tongue reads "bang". flies low over all our heads. ol bee jay shook us all that day i'm not ashamed t say. he just lean down on the ground. picked up a handful of dirt. "land" he called it. he just stood there. weiving back and forth. let the dirt seep slowly thru his fingers. mumbled something about his back being smelly am said: "thas mah little lady theh" yes an its been ever sinse that day that i have become t wonder about just WHO should be allowed t sit on OUR shoulders. many times has been the nite when i have had cause t wonder deeply an most deliberately about these uncaused sensations. at off beat measures, they seem t be unconsciously eating me. anyway today finally now i decide t do something about it. yeah i'm gonna run for office i decide. i walk to the door an start running. i bump into fuller brush salesmen two at a time. all fall down. get up sorry now. "howdy i'm running for office" they smile. i buy five toothbrushes an a ring for my kitchen sink. "don't put it on your fingers" they say as wave goodbye. me? i stick it dog's mouth travel on. "i guess i showed them" back on umbrella again by evening time i forget all about this running for office i fly around circus style. watch for cave ins an dont be too good to nobody. they might get wrong idea. sneer at graveyard. make patty cake thank you mam good gawd son is at London bridge about t go? i mix up crazy phantoms. exchange their eyes bust into plate glass predictions. get in two timed position. try t make it with the manacans. mocasins hurling every which way. see at a glance i mistaked mistooken inian indian's joe for j.c.penny any. i get chopped off head no hair under armpit. go dancing back t where i'm better known. arrive in a flurry. hurry bring tools. what? me worry? my head back on backwards i stumble out door. wave bye bye get hit by loose lion. knock down cop comes. old cop. says what's wrong with your head. i call him kimosabee in broken french. arrests me as a trespasser. i say i'm folksinger in real life. he dont wanna hear it. i say i'm poet storyteller. he grabs my throat. says theres a noose waiting. i say i got influence round here. he swings at my heart with fiery billy club. i kill him leave him lay there. paint muscateer on forehead so noone recognize him. head off for points unknown. wishin hopin thinkin see picture of dusty springfield in closed out record store. people point t me tho. they're all pointin at me tho. "there's dusty springfield" they yell. i say ok i dig that. chase me muthafucker. wham zoom fall in running river on edge of town. small town. everyone knows each other. hey aint that dusty springfield at jes fall down in that ther o water. not me t care tho. got much t do. seeds all sowed. corns in. aint had much rain but the tractor's comein soon i hear tell. keep rememberin messages of the city. was there some time not ago. roar thru. dont never again live there no more. used to but not now know for sure. east side my own first old east side. same east side. village has moved over. village unbelievable. me lucky lucky. an god's own pillars've even turned t rust sugar tastes bitter. salt is sweet ramming bali ligosi girls on the tails of mice rats ring the bells truth dont lie in the alley dead bums dont die cleopatra's sister opens her mouth at the manhole tries t grab mayor wagner's son he him an them got better things t do everybody takes the clap for syphlis an hank williams dont never sing too well no more these days ah what care i for sorrow's tomorrow ANYWAY yeah ANYWAY the winds aint strong can only break windows time ahah can go thru anything but cant go backwards. sickly time. stiff neck terrible will go t death in institution. cremate style. in silver oven advertiazin perhaps camel cigarettes? hot point frigerators for sure. leave records on at nite when going t sleep an dont be afraid of gene genet. ghosts on the highway. they will follow you. if you travel up these highways. dont you know that. hold on jeep yr eyes on the plow (or whatever) later soon me. jeanny tarter. Signed "uh-huh".
Bob's Written Word