My life as a vagabond poet, or Annals of King John Tarik, the Walker

Son of J. Peter Creighton, former editor of the Galesburg Post and The Knoxville Journal, and of Donya Marietherese Padilla Santoscoy de Creighton, John Peter Creighton is the author of essays, journal articles, & poetry. His poetry has appeared in The Post, The Journal, Blue Collar Review, & Allpoetry. Since the age of 16, he has read or recited poetry in such venues as the Western Illinois Poetry Contest, Babylon Café, The Last Elm Coffeehouse in Burlington, Vermont, and The Sentient Bean Coffeehouse in Savannah, Georgia.1

Some him jean-pierre, a name he took in his Memphis days. He had tried to be a writer, and met with little success thus far. He did get some recognition as a poet, artist, anarchist, and Progressive organizer in Midtown Memphis during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. 2

A couple of periods in his life he lived as a nomad or vagabond.3

Eventually he ended up at a vegetarian coffee house, The Babylon Café, owned and managed by Mimi Hohenburg. She was following the Diamond Path of Buddhism. Some of her friends and co-religionists gathered at the coffee house, which was in an old servants’ quarters behind a grocery store, and a stone’s throw from where lived Joe Walsh’ of the rock group, the Eagles. 4

jean pierre took some of his dishwasher savings,bought a train pass, travelled to Illinois to visit his parents and brother, then to New York City, then Boston, then by bus to Waterville, Maine, where he visited a writer friend from Oxford, Mississippi. She and her friends gave him a lift to Hwy. 1 on the way to Bar Harbor. From there, he hitch-hiked to Cherryfield to get work raking blueberries. First, he met Raker X, Elaine, who led me to Solar Energy Awareness and Demonstrations Seminars, called S.E.A.D.S., or that hippy commune, maybe, by some of the less accepting locals. At SEADS, he became acquainted with some ecological and political activists and outsiders. The leader was a Navy vet named Charlie, whose partner John had left some time earlier. 5

At a clinic for migrant workers nearby, he met a wonderful young woman doctor whom he woould refer to at times as Hoosier Zoe. The two fell in love at first sight. They became pen pals after he returned to Memphis. After several months he returned from Memphis to live with her at her cottage near Augusta, Maine. Later, they moved to a town on the tundra in Alaska, some 500 miles from Anchorage, and not connected by any roads to Anchorage or the Outside. There, he learned Yup’ik Eskimo, became a volunteer radio announcer, volunteer EMT, and continued to develop in art, writing, contributing to zines, the local newspaper, and supplementing the household income at the local Quickie Mart.6

The doctor & he broke up after three years. Broken hearted but determined to get over this loss, and also determined not to go back to washing dishes or being homeless, jean pierre reverted to his birth name, & joined the National Guard, and within a year joined the Army, was sent to Fort Campbell where he was given Air Assault training, and began a new chapter in life, as a clerk with the 101st Airborne Division.7

During this time he married a woman he met while in Anchorage, Alaska; settled with his wife in a township among the Amish, took up exploring rivers by canoe, and caves by flashlight. he re-enlisted as a combat engineer, and was sent to Fort Stewart and the Third Infantry Division.8

In December 2003 Army Specialist John Peter Creighton was given an Honorable Discharge from the Army at the home of the Third Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Georgia.9

He still tried writing, although these days m involved in a global agribusiness, where he was learning to operate a packing system. 10

Was trying to teach (home school) his children Spanish, Irish, mathematics, and science.11

During the ensuing years, jean pierre confirmed some of his self-perception, developed further as a writer. He took on a sort of alter ego:12

"Je m'appelle Jean Pierre Creighton Padilla, of the Jalisco Padillas.13

"I have lived in this life forty and six years. However, I am immortal. I have lived many lives, from the dawn of Man onward. I am, in short, the mortal reincarnation of the Wandering Jew, Ahasuerus.14

"In this life I was born to Pete son of MAC daughter of Mina daughter of Shimeon Weinberg, and Maria Teresa Padilla daughter of el licenciado Don Jorge Padilla of La Barca. I was born two years before the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, or if you will, in the Year of Literacy in Revolutionary Cuba, in 1961. 15

"I am a vampire fighter. I am an angel. I am mad but a holy saint. I am an arm of Shiva, and a sworn servant of Michael the Archangel," he wrote.16

A year ago he had resided with his wife Wilma, daughter Annie Franck, and son Altgeld, in a small town at a crossroads where trucks play their way to Florida and back north or west, mostly. Since leaving in April 2007 to assist my mother and more, he has only returned once to visit.17

For over thirteen months now, he has domeciled with a childhood sweet heart in a place which he calls “Cottage on the Hill by the Wooded Gully between the Silver Lakes.” 18

http://cafegroundzero.blogspot.com/, http://plazacomunal.blogspot.com. Has contributed to bulletin boards at Yahoo Current Events, Literature, the Savannah Morning News bulletin boards, as hajgora7 or teacher-artist.19

Known as cafegroundzero on several web sites including 43Things, jean pierre also holds fourth level as a participant in Yahoo Questions & Answers. Café is currently playing or developing the role of John Tarik Blackjack Walker, King of Chicago. He is a philosopher king, author responsible for essays such as "Rejuvenation: starting over," "Poor communication, deffective thinkling, or faulty logic," "Racism in literature and the fine arts" and "The philosophy of spam." 20

I am a 46 year old guy from Illinois (United States) 21

When I'm not writing, I'm planning a coffeehouse with a bookshop somewhere in your neighbourhood. I'm working on my first million dollars.. 22

Visit my homepage at www.43things.com/person/jeanpierre