︎
Four Tiny Sutras
For Dimitri Mugianis


    First mind,
    Best mind,
    Allen Ginsberg said


    D.E.
    Do Easy
    William S. Burroughs added


    Let it roll
    was the guidance
    of Jack Kerouac


    and the way
    I remember it goes
    from the Big O,


                in the land of plenty, have
                nothing to do with it
                take the way of


                the lowest, including
                your legs, go
                contrary, go


                sing
                                             —Charles Olson


                                 Amsterdam, July 8, 2007



John Sinclair is a poet, political activist, and counterculture icon, based in Detroit. His jazz poetry is often performed with the Blues Scholars. His publications include It’s All Good: A John Sinclair Reader (2008), We Just Change the Beat: Selected Poems (1988) and This Is Our Music (1965), and the music-in-verse collections Fattening Frogs for Snakes: Delta Sound Suite (2002), and Thelonious: a book of monk (1994).

Read next: Poetry by Khaled Mattawa



Founded in 2020, Three Fold is an independent quarterly based in Detroit that presents exploratory points of view on arts, culture, and society in addition to original works in various media, including visual art, literature, film and the performing arts. We solicit and commission contributions from artists, writers, and activists around the world. Three Fold is a publication of Trinosophes Projects, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization located in the historic Eastern Market neighborhood in downtown Detroit. Click here to check out Three Fold’s events page and view a schedule of the publication’s on-site activities.

Three Fold recognizes, supports, and advocates for the sovereignty of Michigan’s twelve federally-recognized Indian nations, for historic Indigenous communities in Michigan, for Indigenous individuals and communities who live here now, and for those who were forcibly removed from their Homelands. We operate on occupied territories called Waawiiyaataanong, named by the Anishinaabeg and including the Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibwe (Chippewa), Odawa (Ottawa), and Bodewatomi (Potawatomi) peoples. We hold to commit to Indigenous communities in Waawiiyaataanong, their elders, both past and present, and future generations.