International Times talks to legendary Jack Kerouac biographer Gerald Nicosia about his new collection of poetry, Last of the Lincolns. If death is one pole of human life, love is the other, and the poems in Last of the Lincolns vacillate between the two, just as most human lives do. Joanne taught me that writing poetry doesn’t have to be a grave affair; it can just be fun. From left: Gerald Nicosia, Tony Seldin (known as The Vagabond Poet), Kush (in background), Antler, novelist Dennis Dunn, musician Phil Deal, and Jeff Poniewaz. Gerald Nicosia and Bob Kaufman, party for Kaufman’s The Ancient Rain, Old Spaghetti Factory, North Beach, San Francisco, September, 1981.