Based on my past experiences, I would consider myself someone who does not like beat poetry. I can appreciate the style and the cultural situation that caused it to arise, but besides understanding it I have never found a connection or deeper reverence for the style. When learning about beat poets in previous English classes, “Howl” and Alan Ginsburg were always at the center of the conversation. However, I’ve always preferred poetry that rhymed or had some strong meter, like sonnets and haikus. So while I’m keeping an open mind throughout this era, it’s not so surprising to me that the poem that resonated with me most was one that had rhymes and haikus. Jack Kerouac’s “The Perfect Love of Mind Essence” stuck out to me due to its mix of depth and playfulness, where the structure lends for an interesting reading of the poem that makes you want to read it again. After getting some background on Kerouac’s involvement with the Buddhist religion, the meaning of “Mind Essence” and what he was referring to becomes another interesting layer of the poem.
The beginning of the poem introduces the “Mind Essence”, telling us “Mind Essence loves everything, because it / knows why everything is”, referring to an all-knowing figure or entity that evokes a god-like reverence (lines 1-2). The capitalization of the “Mind Essence” furthers this God positioning as it is presented as a proper noun. There is further description of what the “Mind Essence” loves and why, and I found it notable that the first 10 lines do not rhyme while setting up the poem.
At line 11, Kerouac begins to insert couplets after indenting the poem, forming a new thought process with the change in meter and style. The lines that begin this next section are a direct reference to achieving enlightenment, where once “The Karma is done/Mind Essence is one” (lines 9-10). There are then eight rhymed couplets, each referring to a different part of the body. I especially like the lines “The mind of bliss / is pure happiness” and found this to be a good summation of the Buddhist faith, since the religion emphasizes a mindset or philosophy as the main idea, not a person or specific deity (lines 17-18). The other groupings seem to be alluding to a lack of worry or concern that comes out of not being of the earth or in a physical form. This grouping ends with “No crying/ in essence undying” (lines 25-26), where one cannot be unhappy if they are “undying”. I took this to mean there is peace in death, but also there is peace in knowing there is an enlightenment to be achieved beyond death that cannot die. Described by CAP’s editor as “visionary surrealism”, lines like “he never fears/who has no ears” point to a type of mystical or spiritual experience (Nelson 192, lines 21-22). At the same time, this also seems to be the basis for a prophetic tone and voice coming from the groupings of couplets, where each thought ties back to an overarching problem that is raised by being human. Therefore, one could argue the poem is partially about what it is to be human, and that being human is suffering (existence is pain, etc.).
The next section is indented even further, with the couplets continuing but with an arrow directly pointing to another couplet. I personally enjoy when form is broken up the way Kerouac does here, because it not only tells the reader it’s a new thought or idea, but it helps one’s brain sort the poem into different sections, and what I feel creates more depth and meaning than regular prose. Some of these groupings were not as meaningful as the previous section or seemed less significant with reference to the overall theme. Lines like “Wind in the trees/Is a mental breeze” didn’t interest me as much as the other sections (lines 33-34). In addition, the section with the arrows has the couplets ending with periods, making them more finite and less accessible. The ending of the poem moves the indentation back and has similar phrasings and ideas, like “And wind responds/To magic wands” and my personal favorite, “Fire retires/When water admires” (lines 38-39, 40-41). There are no punctuation marks in this section, and the groupings sound like proverbs providing wisdom about the earth and the elements. Throughout both of the last sections, there is constant earth, wind, fire, and water imagery throughout the couplets, which I found very effective in communicating the overall theme of otherworldliness and enlightenment that defines the Buddhist religion. Though they are elements of earth, they seem to ground the reader to consider the earth and the way we live within it, allowing us to then consider ourselves not of the earth.
I really enjoyed this poem because the meter and structure were intriguing, and I liked how I second guessed my interpretations after reading through it a few times. The “Mind Essence” can be referring to a person’s soul or consciousness, what really makes a person who they are besides a bundle of cells and atoms. The “essence” of a person is what creates a person, and the comparisons and mentions to different body parts lead one to think he’s describing a person’s mind with relation to their physical form, and what that becomes once they leave earth and achieve enlightenment.
Funnily enough, I had searched for other people’s interpretations and found no articles or references to the poem. I’m hoping you all can weigh in on my thoughts since I don’t have any critics or previous writings to reference. Do you all agree with my interpretation? Am I looking too far into it because of the Buddhism theme throughout the beat movement? Or is there something I’m missing? Looking forward to hearing from you!
I think you offer an interesting reading here, and I’m glad you fond something in the beats that resonates with your interest in more formal and structured poetics. Though when I read that, I did wonder what you thought of Ginsberg’s description of his own poetics and how oddly precise and carefully calibrated his approach often seems. There’s a formal deliberateness there–that sort of “practiced spontaneity”–that many of the Beats share.
I was drawn to compare this reflection on “mind essence” with Ferlinghetti’s “Dog.” They both model a kind of Beat consciousness-emptied out, freed from preconceived notions–that I find compelling. To that, Kerouac ads the occasional absurdist wit, blending deep pathos with nonsense. Thanks for sharing this reading!