Heaven & Other Poems

by Jack Kerouac

Donald Allen, the late great editor of the Evergreen Review at Grove Press and editor of the seminal anthology The New American Poetry , first met Jack Kerouac in 1956 when he and Allen Ginsberg came to visit at his West Village apartment. At the time, Allen was working on the "San Francisco Scene" issue of the Evergreen Review , and Ginsberg and Kerouac brought him manuscripts and news of developments on the West Coast. Over the next three years, Kerouac would send Allen poems for various projects, along with letters in which he discussed his poetry, his life, and the work of his young contemporaries. The unpublished poems are collected here, as are the letters, a comic strip drawn for the Cassady children, and Kerouac's self-penned poetic biography. Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) was a principal actor in the Beat Generation, a companion of Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady in that great adventure. His books include On the Road , The Dharma Bums , Mexico City Blues , Lonesome Traveler , Visions of Cody , Pomes All Sizes (City Lights), Scattered Poems (City Lights), and Scripture of the Golden Eternity (City Lights).

Genres: Poetry, Collections, American

70 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac, known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation.

Of French-Canadian ancestry, Kerouac was raised in a French-speaking home in Lowell, Massachusetts. He "learned English at age six and spoke with a marked accent into his late teens." During World War II, he served in the United States Merchant Marine; he completed his first novel at the time, which was published more than 40 years after his death. His first published book was The Town and the City (1950), and he achieved widespread fame and notoriety with his second, On the Road, in 1957. It made him a beat icon, and he went on to publish 12 more novels and numerous poetry volumes.
Kerouac is recognized for his style of stream of consciousness spontaneous prose. Thematically, his work covers topics such as his Catholic spirituality, jazz, travel, promiscuity, life in New York City, Buddhism, drugs, and poverty. He became an underground celebrity and, with other Beats, a progenitor of the hippie movement, although he remained antagonistic toward some of its politically radical elements. He has a lasting legacy, greatly influencing many of the cultural icons of the 1960s, including Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Jerry Garcia and The Doors.
In 1969, at the age of 47, Kerouac died from an abdominal hemorrhage caused by a lifetime of heavy drinking. Since then, his literary prestige has grown, and several previously unseen works have been published.

Reviews

[Steven Godin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ants are gone asleep
By now, out on those plains
Of pulque and rice
Beyond Pascual
And the Cactus Town
Matador pan
Pazatza cuaro
Mix-technique
Poop
Indio
Yo yo catlepol
Moon Yowl
Indian
Town & City

Vendors of Take a Giant Step
Say Hailé
In back se malleys
selling drunks

[♡ Dakota ♡ (Sarcasm is my middle name) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hated this. I am so sorry. The second worst book I have read in 2025 so far. One Star.

[ella · Rating 2 out of 5]

good to know people were even more insane in the 50s

[chacierrr · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good, whoopeee, da da

[Max Arvidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Submissive to everything, open, listening

[Kevin Burns · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Kerouac, possibly irrationally so. The poems here are good - MacDougal Street Blues is a standout - but it's his correspondence which is most pleasurable. A great, quick read.

[Emmeline · Rating 4 out of 5]

The notes and letters at the end of the book are silly and delightful-- illuminating Kerouac's early life, and his friendships/correspondence with all the Beaty bigwigs-- Ginsberg, Corso, Cassady, Dorn, Burroughs, Snyder, O'Hara, Ashbery, etc.


From [Biographical Resume, Fall 1957]:

"In high school, football, which led me (via scouts) to Columbia varsity but I quit football to write (because one afternoon, before scrimmage, I heard Beethoven fifth symphony and it had begun to snow and I knew I wanted to be a Beethoven instead of an athlete)...

In recent reading appearance at Village Vanguard I was universally attacked, but all I did was stand there and read my heart out, not caring how I looked or what anybody thought, and I am satisfied because the dishwasher... said: 'All I wanta do is get 2 quarts of whiskey and lie down in bed and listen to you read to me.' Also the musicians (Lee Konitz, Billy Bauer, Wilbur Little) said I was 'singing' when I read and they heard the music, and since I consider myself a jazz poet, I am satisfied with that. What intelligentsia says makes little difference, as I've always spent my time in skid row or in jazz joints or with personal poet madmen and never cared what 'intelligentsia' thinks. My love of poetry is love of joy...

I am only a jolly storyteller and have nothing to do with politics or schemes and my only plan is the old Chinese Way of the Tao: 'avoid the authorities.' I am a bibulous old jolly drunk and I love everybody."

[Dean Oken · Rating 3 out of 5]

i really appreciated being able to read his personal statements on poetics and how his personal history informed the formation of his spontaneous prose. however, his jazz poems are really missing Steve Allen. the word falls flat where the music is not there to lift it up.

[Caitlin Conlon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think that my negative opinion of Kerouac probably skewed my reading but I really wasn't a huge fan of his poetry. it didn't do much for me.

[Brendan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the more enjoyable short collections of Kerouac's poetry.

[Charles Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

excellent collection of poems and letters for/to Don Allen from Jack. a glimpse into the strange world of the beat poetry scene in the late fifties early sixties

[Hanna Abi Akl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent collection of poems, emphasizing Kerouac's Zen lunacy writing and jazz blues verses. An excellent biographical piece to look forward to as well.

[Mara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I dont know what it means but I like how it all sounds

[Rolf · Rating 2 out of 5]

I find something to admire in the work and style evident in beat poetry....at the same time, it's just so incredibly self-indulgent.

[Nina]

The letters at the end are everything, ha!

[Jacqueline]

sTrEaM,oF CONSciousNeSs.

[Logan Lathrop · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this a lot! It felt simple and rough, and having the context of Jack being a seminal figure of the San Francisco beat movement made this little book even more powerful to me!

[rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful collection of poems. The letters at the end were quite nice too, really interesting look into Kerouac.

[Thai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heaven is my favorite

[suuki · Rating 4 out of 5]

truly a 3.5 stars for me but goodreads only allowed full stars for rating nvr halves…

[Juan Carlos Ancona · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heaven is indeed one of his greatest poems, as he assures later on. There are a few more lines and verses that are worth reading too.

[Mat · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great collection of poems. The only reason I don't give this selection 5 stars is because it is not quite as good as Jack's Mexico City Blues (one of the great works of poetry in the latter half of the 20th Century) or Corso's The Happy Birthday of Death but it is right up there.
The poem Heaven is gorgeous and tender, in which Jack lays out his jawdropping vision of the celestial planes and all the people who will be up there with him, including his brother Gerard.
A few of these poems in this collection resemble the onomatopoeic 'sound-poems' of Old Angel Midnight - that is, they carry a similar resonance to them.
Finally, to cap it all off, there are some very pleasant letters from Jack to Donald Allen who was putting together a collection on San Francisco scene poets at the time.
The one big shock about this book is when Jack describes the beauty of showing love to one's children. It is hard to fathom how such a great poet who felt so in his heart, was unable to responsibly raise his own daughther, Jan. Even if he did leave Joan because she may or may not have had an affair with someone else, that is no excuse to abandon your daughter, let alone DENY that she was his own flesh and blood. Just take one look at her and you can immediately see the resemblence with her father. Quite striking actually.
But I digress, art is art and private life is private life. Thou shalt not judge an artist by his private life - that should be one of the extra commandments.
All in all, this is another great collection of poems from Monsieur Kerouac. What a prolific artist he was. It sometimes seems like he wrote at such a furious pace because intuitively he knew his life was going to be cut short. Highly recommended.

[JJ Lehmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a slim book of poetry by Jack Kerouac. The poems are followed by letters written from Jack to his publisher Don. One can truly feel the love Jack has for Don. Even though these are simply letters, Jack's beautiful prose and spirit beams forth. In one letter he exclaims that his poem, "Heaven" contain within his his greaest wrok thus far. In fact, he says that "Heaven" is the best thing he has ever witten. I am not sure about that, but it is certainly one of his greaest poems. The rest of the poems are in his usual jazzy blues-style.
I loved this small jewel...you will too.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Kerouac's letters to publisher and friend Donald Allen at the end of the book. They are childlike in their sincerity and earnestness. I can connect with his rambling style of writing much easier with his letters, than with his poetry. But I really enjoyed his poems too. He has a beautiful, sporadic way with words. This is a line from the title poem, "Heaven,"

"The Church? Earth's dogmatic mistakes have nothing to do with Heaven."

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keroauc's style is as crazy as he was, his poetry seems to make more sense than his novels. I think in his terse, 'shoot-from-the-hip' style, freeverse is much more becoming...absolutely beautiful lyrical stylings coupled with his familiar social observations...excellent.

[Cooper Renner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a big Beat fan, but this small collection provides an interesting window into Kerouac, containing poems and letters. Its brevity is a plus for those who, like me, want a sample without feeling the urge to commit to hundreds of pages.

[Arif Abdurahman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Untuk puisi, saya enggak bisa komentar. Tapi bagian prosa, surat-suratnya buat editornya, bagi saya, sangat menarik, tentang pandangannya soal kawan-kawan Beat-nya dan soal tulis menulis. Saya sendiri sedang membaca On the Road.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

the poem heaven is absolutely beautiful and heartwrenching. very relavent to the thoughts and idealogy of our current generation.

[Eckhard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Contains the wonderful Biographical Resume of 1957, which for years and years has provided me with inspiration for my own writing.

[Elissa Hoole · Rating 4 out of 5]

some of my favorites are here!