This is the copy of Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums which inspired John Del Bagno, at age 19, to set out on the Buddhist Path and to also become a poet. Over the years, he crossed paths with several of the Beat Poets. He got to know Ananda Dalenberg the best during the time when Ananda regularly attended early activities of the Triratna Buddhist Order in San Francisco which, at the time, were held in Del Bagno’s apartment. Ananda was portrayed as Bud Diefendorf in The Dharma Bums. Del Bagno attended a writing workshop with Roshi Philip Whalen and was at the Naropa Institute/Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics readings by Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman and William S. Burroughs in 1989. Del Bagno tells the story of meeting Allen Ginsberg in Texas:

“In 1987, I was in Dallas visiting my father, who had recently relocated from New York, when I saw an ad for a reading by Allen Ginsberg being held at the Dallas Museum of Art. He was touring around with an exhibit of his photos of the Beats from the 1950’s onward. I was in the Gallery looking at the famous photo of Jack Kerouac standing on a fire escape smoking a cigarette when Allen and another man walked into the room. He was kind of bobbing his head like he was looking for the action. Scanning the room he saw me with my long blonde hair, which was down between my shoulders at that time. Without a word to the other man, he walked straight over to me and started chatting me up. Although, I identify as straight, I was quite flattered. As we started to talk about the photo, a very buxom museum matron in a glittering gown glided into the room, “Oh, Allen, there you are!” and swept him away.”

Del Bagno’s other poetic influences: Rainer Maria Rilke, Ryokan, Han Shan, Basho, Issa, Rexroth, Patchen Pierre Reverdy