The Beat Hotel By John Drudge

A crumbling refuge 

Tucked away 

At 9 Rue Gît-le-Cœur

A collision of minds

No ordinary place

A sanctuary 

Of wandering souls

Drifting 

Through cigarette smoke

And existential howls

The walls

Thin as paper 

Soaked in jazz and madness

Cut-up realities

Bleeding

Into French plaster

A liminal and lubricated 

Space

Where boundaries dissolve

And chaos and clarity 

Tango

In a dance of rebellion

Raw 

Searching 

Unafraid of the void

Not just another stop

On the road

John is a social worker working in the field of disability management and holds degrees in social work, rehabilitation services, and psychology.  He is the author of seven books of poetry: “March” (2019), “The Seasons of Us” (2019), New Days (2020), Fragments (2021), A Long Walk (2023), A Curious Art (2024) and Sojourns (2024) . His work has appeared widely in literary journals, magazines, and anthologies internationally. John is also a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee and lives in Caledon Ontario, Canada with his wife and two children.