
“On the grand staircase of the Olympia hall, just past the scales. Just because we’re jogging again doesn’t mean we’re not going to put on 10’s heels.”

“On the grand staircase of the Olympia hall, just past the scales. Just because we’re jogging again doesn’t mean we’re not going to put on 10’s heels.”

( This program originally aired on WRIU, Kingston, 90.3 FM on Sunday, August 31, 2025 )

By Michael Stevenson
( This program originally aired on WRIU, Kingston, 90.3 FM on Sunday, August 24 )
I Tell You It Is October!
by Jack Kerouac
There’s something olden and golden and lost
In the strange ancestral light,
There’s something tender and loving and sad
In October’s copper might.
End of something, old, old, old…
Always missing, sad, sad, sad…
Saying something…love, love, love…
Akh! I tell you it is October,
And I defy you now and always
To deny there is not love
Staring foolishly at skies
Whose beauty but God defies.
For in October’s ancient glow
A little after dusk
Love strides through the meadow
Dropping her burnished husk…
“I Tell You It Is October” appears in Jack Kerouac Collected Poems, published by The Library of America in 2012